FAMILY BUSINESS
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1989 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: Very substandard Lumet. A powerful
performance by Dustin Hoffman is not enough to save this
mismatch of story elements, but does raise it to a rating of
0.
Sidney Lumet is one of the best of American directors. His record includes films such as TWELVE ANGRY MEN, FAIL-SAFE, DOG DAY AFTERNOON, and NETWORK. It would be hard to match for intensity films such as EQUUS or what may be his most powerful film, THE PAWNBROKER. But somehow something went very wrong with FAMILY BUSINESS, a crazy-quilt patchwork that falls apart at the seams.
The first and most unlikely matching is of Sean Connery, Dustin Hoffman, and Matthew Broderick as three generations of the same family. At least one review tells me the novel that the film was based on has everyone being Irish-American. If that is true, and even if not, it represents an appalling sacrifice of credibility for box-office appeal. The whole story lies under the cloud of this initial foolishness. Grandfather Jessie is Irish, his son Vito is Sicilian, and his grandson Adam is Jewish. It was left ambiguous but Jessie's mother may have been Cherokee. Jessie is a career criminal who led his son Vito into crime. Vito, however, eventually broke with his father, married a Jewish woman, ran a meat provision company that he not so secretly hated, and raised a Westinghouse scholar, Adam. Adam, however, is rebelling from his father and wants to follow his grandfather into crime, starting with the unusual robbery of a biological research facility.
While the film is marketed as having substantial comedy, nobody seems to have told director Lumet. FAMILT BUSINESS is a crime drama without very much comedy. Even then the actors are mismatched since neither Broderick nor Connery is equipped or prepared to match the intensity of a Dustin Hoffman performance.
Somewhere Lumet seems to have lost control of the theme of the film. The film becomes a defense of crime. It is full of likable criminals who hawk stolen goods at Irish wakes. The nasty people in this film are people who deal in real estate and lawyers, and big corporations, each of whom is made to look worse than the others. Lumet seems to be saying that Adam should go into likable crime because legal professions are all immoral.
In spite of Hoffman's performance--the only aspect that prevents this film from getting a much lower rating--I would give this film a 0 on the -4 to +4 scale. FAMILY BUSINESS is bad business.
Mark R. Leeper
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