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Critics Consensus: In the Family uses one couple's tragedy to examine the legal meaning of parenthood - and make a persuasive argument for a more inclusive approach to family law.
Critic Consensus: In the Family uses one couple's tragedy to examine the legal meaning of parenthood - and make a persuasive argument for a more inclusive approach to family law.
All Critics (26) | Top Critics (11) | Fresh (25) | Rotten (1)
To see it is to sit there for long stretches amazed at how clumsy, fake and misguided it is. But then, five minutes later you might easily be riveted and moved by its awkward brilliance.
Trevor St. John is cute and broody-mouthed as the deceased lover; Wang, the movie's writer-director, is touchingly, disarmingly open; and the kid, Sebastian Banes, is adorable.
No doubt you've noticed the nearly three-hour runtime, but please don't let that dissuade you: Every moment counts in this gripping tale ...
As Wang holds us in rapt attention, not only with his steady pacing, but with the hard realism of the screenplay, the characters retain a coldness that never breaks.
Wang chooses gentle storytelling as a tool of persuasion rather than soap-box hectoring to make his point: that love - in all its forms - can transcend the greatest obstacles.
This deeply humanistic, profoundly touching work representing independent cinema at its finest should be seen by far wider audiences.
Yet the film reveals itself to be confident in every one of its choices, establishing its own terms in how an audience familiarizes themselves within its world with startling naturalism, and it grows to be beautiful in form and function.
On paper, In the Family is an 'issue movie'...But in practice, it's a made-to-scale love story and a thoughtful family drama. In other words, it's a true rarity of contemporary cinema. [Blu-ray]
an amazing piece of work, a quiet, introspective indie film that will have you rethinking everything
(Writer-director Patrick) Wang's deliberate, naturalistic style proves to be both a strength and a weakness. In the final analysis, the overall timeliness of Wang's storyline as well as the film's lack of sentimentality is of considerable value.
Despite its length and deliberate pacing, this is a film that is cathartic like no other film I have seen in a long time. An eloquent but non-propagandistic plea for gay rights.
Will remind viewers of the emotional tugs of a KRAMER VS. KRAMER.
The potential for over-the-top, weepy melodrama with this kind of material is obvious, but Patrick Wang opts for quiet realism. While the film sidesteps nearly all of the "movie-of the week" cliches, the glacial pace could be difficult for some people to endure (nearly three hours worth of this story probably isn't necessary), fortunately Wang makes the important moments count, so if you are patient "In the Family" is quite rewarding. Another thing that helps distinguish this film is its subtle demonstration of "Bourgeois Homophobia" (The kind of passive aggressive discrimination that's becoming more common in America than the violent hatred of old) and how perhaps the best response to it isn't righteous anger or protest . . . but rather impassioned, mature discussion and forgiveness.
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