Perfect cast and a good story

Crappy film

A Disappointing Continuation

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

I liked all of the performances. How can you not? The actors are awarded household names. That said, the story is full on bad taste, beginning to end. I was not aware there was a book. I read a review saying the book is better and did not translate well onto the screen. Well, I can see that. If one would tell me the whole story of this movie one day, and if they were a good story teller, there is a chance I would find it a little amusing. To make matters worse, the movie starts a plot that grows into a crescendo that just does not pay off at the end. Without spoiling, I will say, I felt personally depressed by how poorly constructed and little grasp of reality the story takes a turn into so it can get finalized. To say something positive, the music is fun. The catchy song the kids perform saying that they should kill their parents is hilarious.

The Fangs are a family of artists and their lives are filled with drama, mysteries, and a web of lies. Daughter, Annie (Nicole Kidman), son, Baxter (Jason Bateman), and their parents, performing artists Caleb (Christopher Walken) and Camille (Kathryn Hahn) all return to the family home after Baxter has an accident that lands him in the hospital. Shortly after they return home, Caleb and Camille decide to go away for a few days, but the police find their abandoned car at a rest stop.Annie is an actress hoping to see her family reunited again as it was when she was young when they were all performers. She sees their disappearance is just another one of their acts. Baxter is a cynical writer and believes they're gone for good. Is this another one of their bizarre performance acts or has something really happened to them?

Wow, weird one, this. For most part it's uninvolving and even sleep- inducing. And I wouldn't say it's put together successfully: too much empty talk and too little character development or concentrating on family dynamics.But it does raise interesting questions about how or why parents are to blame for shortfalls in their offsprings' later independent life. And the short but quite powerful finale does lift it somewhere higher than before. At least it did for me.The story is about adult brother and sister (Nicole Kidman, Jason Bateman) not enjoying their adult existence and blaming parents for not raising them the proper way. But the latter (Christopher Walken, Maryann Plunkett) are lifelong controversial performance artists who claim that true art is more important than being like everybody else.I haven't read the successful 2011's novel by Kevin Wilson the movie is based on but Bateman, also directing, seemed to be struggling with the adaptation. Movie as a whole is in terrible need for some balancing. The scenes with parents are functional, thanks to evercool Walken. But the story concentrates mostly on adult children who are so devoid of charm or anything remotely interesting that may put me almost to sleep. Think "The Royal Tenenbaums" but without the fun parts or unique voice of Wes Anderson.I am not sure what is it with Kidman and Bateman. They both can be really cool given some good material but they rarely manage to find something worthwhile. This is not the good project their fans have been looking for.

Sadness. Sadness so absolute it is punishing.This is the best way I can describe what watching the inexorably depressing drama "The Family Fang" feels like virtually from start to finish. Jason Bateman is quite good in his role as we have become accustomed to seeing from the gifted actor. Bateman also doubles as Director here, and he certainly shows some intriguing promise for the future behind the camera. This is also in my opinion one of the best performances I have ever seen Nicole Kidman deliver. And I've seen her perform a lot.Regrettably, none of this outstanding work can rescue "The Family Fang" from the chokehold of despondency which this wretched story relentlessly strangles us with. Ultimately what we are saddled with is a misery-drenched tale of two parents (Christopher Walken and Maryann Plunkett) who regard their young children as little more than compliant pawns in a twisted game of self-aggrandizement and perverse gratification. And all in the name of obliterating the boundaries of "performance art".It is child abuse that these two sinister souls inflict upon their own flesh and blood. Nothing else. It is abjectly despicable.And it is so VERY sad.