Families (2015)

When I first watched this film, in French only with no subtitles, I thought that my French got a little rusty because many things did not make sense. Then, I watched it again, this time with subtitles. Good news: my French is not rusty. Bad news: the film makes no sense, or very little sense. Even the genre is hard to pin: it feels like it may be a comedy, or romantic comedy with quite a bit of drama... or... I don't know. Then there is a plot which revolves around a house that should/could be inherited by more than one person... all made more complicated by machinations of various individuals. But, even that part does not make much sense (cannot go into details without it being a spoiler). And then, finally, we are supposed to believe that people just fall in love, because, you know, it helps move the story forward. Too bad, because there were a few decent scenes and overall, performances were quite good. But the essence of this film is simple put - poor. Not believable, not engaging. In the end, the film left me completely indifferent. At least actors were good. That's the reason I did not give it 1 star but 3.

Famillies (Belles Familles) has been my greatest TIFF 2015 disappointment, so far. I attended the world premiere last night expecting at least an average film, given the names behind the film. Alas, this was a disappointment on many levels. The film was formulaic to say the least. It is clear that Rappeneau was hoping for commercial success with this half baked film, as it appears to have been created to appeal to the masses with convenient unrealistic turns of events that favour the main protagonists. The character development leaves much to be desired. Mathieu Amalric is usually a great actor. It is hard to understand why he would have chosen this role. Louise played by Marine Vacth was understandably gorgeous, but extremely unlikeable.It was hard to understand why the filmmaker expected us to sympathize with her and to root for her. Perhaps, being beautiful is all that matters in France. I did not care about any of the characters by the end of the film and that is a big deal because I tend to have an almost pathological propensity to care about anything and everything, including fictional characters. Me not caring is a huge accomplishment on the filmmaker's part, albeit not in a good way.The film illustrates infidelity as one of the greatest manifestations of love. This is over-simplistic, tiresome and disrespectful to the intelligence of audiences. Moreover, the final outcome of the film is quite racist, if one were to take a step back and put the narrative in perspective (There were other hints of racism earlier in the film, so this did not come as a complete surprise).If you're going to TIFF 2015: Do NOT see this film! If you already have a ticket for one of its screenings, do yourself a favour and exchange it, before it's too late and you waste almost 2 precious hours of your life that you won't be getting back. Watching this yesterday was an excruciating experience. I cringed for most of it and barely managed to sit through it.