User Reviews

"C'est quoi cette famille?!" or "We Are Family" is the third full feature film work by director Gabriel Julien-Laferrière about a decade after he started filmmaking. It's tolerable overall I'd say. There is nothing essentially wrong with these 100 minutes and it is a fairly fine little comedy movie that does not try to offer more depth, emotions or impact than it can deliver. On the other side, however, it does come short in many fields and ambition as well as talent are factors you will not really find in here on any occasion from start to finish. French film fans may have a better time watching this one as they may find many faces in here that could seem familiar like Baptiste of course or also Deparieu (junior). Then again, I see myself as one of these too, and did not have a great time watching, so maybe not. Anyway, this is the story of what happens when a whole lot of children (some related to each other) feel neglected by their parents and start (with the help of an old lady) living together in an apartment one of the kids' parents is about to sell. So that is also the key plot here, namely that the kids eventually have to get out because the apartment needs to be sold and I guess you can imagine the generic happy ending already that arises from it eventually. Bit the good thing is they did not stretch the secrecy part for too long as the parents of course quickly find out in a realistic manner what their kids are doing, even if the whole launch of the project with the way how everybody says they are sleeping at somebody else's feels a bit unoriginal and (un)funny for the sake of it. And there's more moments like this, too many in fact. You will recognize them when you see them. Also we have a great deal of romance here, rather between the parents than the kids obviously, some trying to breeze new life into their dusted relationships while others finding new love. It's fine I guess. The performance I liked the most here was Thierry Neuvic, but that should not mean too much as really nobody stood out overall. The script also wasn't helping too much as the way the characters were written felt a bit shallow most of the time, almost comical at times, and of course it is a huge challenge with this many characters to provide them with depth and make them not only interesting, but have audiences care about them even. The makers here came short in all these endeavors. It's always a bit sad to see so many screen writers in charge here and see them come up with something so mediocre. It's not a bold or daring script by any means, on the contrary they played it extremely safe overall in terms of completely lack of political incorrectness and the subject fitting in well with our times too, not that this is bad, but it needs to provide something fresh in any way for me to make an impact and this film really doesn't. Also the aforementioned happy ending conclusion feels rushed and unauthentic. Here and there we get a sweet moment, but not too many and these are equalized in a negative manner with examples of writing that just make no sense at all, like the one child character talking about conrflakes in relationships early on to his potential love interest. With reference to the younger actors, I need to say that some of them weren't any good really and it showed painfully, even with the little material they had that maybe I should be glad instead that they weren't developed any further. Then again, this also applies to those child actors with more significant screen time. The ending and film in general could be the basis for a sequel and I would not be surprised if it happens at some point, even if I do not know how successful the movie turned out at the box office. I have virtually no interest in seeing it though as I believe this one film was already one too many. Not recommended. Thumbs down.