THE FAMILY FANG
US, 2015, 105 minutes, Colour.
Nicole Kidman, Jason Bateman, Christopher Walker, Maryann Plunkett, Kathryn Hahn, Jason Butler Harner, Harris Yulin, Linda Emond, Josh Pais.
Directed by Jason Bateman.
One has simply to say that the title indicates a family story with bit!.
And, one would not be mistaken.
The film opens with a voice-over advising a young child to imagine being dead, death pervading the limbs and moving towards a whole body – followed by advice about dealing with chaos: be calm within because the chaos is outside. And then two children join their parents in robbing a bank, the young boy, called Child B, goes to the teller to demand a lollipop from the counter. His mother and sister are there in support and his father is videoing the whole lot.
It emerges that the family Fang are artists, mother and father firmly believing that art occurs in real life, in contrived situations that put people on edge, and that the art is in the unpredictable experience and the results. Over the decades, they become quite famous and the audience sees black-and-white footage of pranks from the past, including Child B, Baxter, winning a beauty contest the judges thinking he was a girl. His sister, Annie, Child A, also participates – including singing on a park bench, “Kill your Parents�.
As might be expected, this film about family raises many issues about the influence of parents on children (not unlike the recent Captain Fantastic where the parents took their large family out into the woods to subsist in a tough environment).
The adult Annie, Child A, and Baxter, Child B, have obviously experienced some psychological damage, she a temperamental film actress, he a moderately successful writer who cannot get his next manuscript in for the deadline. When Baxter is hospitalised through an accident with a gun firing potatoes, his parents come to the hospital to visit.
Annie and Baxter are very effectively played by Nicole Kidman and Jason Bateman – who also directed the film.
But then Christopher Walken comes on the scene as the older father. Walken can chew scenery at the best of times and has many opportunities here to expound on his theories of art, his philosophy of life, elements of surprise and challenge in the performance arts that he involved his wife and children in in the past – and, it is revealed, he has not quite finished.
When their parents disappear – and the children are not sure whether they have been murdered or have engineered their disappearance – Annie and Baxter realise it is time for them to step out into their own individuality and deal with the influence of their parents. This involves going to see a professor who influenced their parents, Hobart (Harris Yulin).
The film includes the device of having the parents being interviewed for television, enabling them, especially the father, to explain his philosophy of art at some length, and Hobart also to be interviewed with his perspective.
There are some twists which he audience – and Annie and Baxter – did not anticipate.
Yes, the atmosphere and a lot of the behaviour is rather bizarre – but interesting and challenging.
1. The title, the tone? An unpredictable story?
2. Locations for the artworks, the film set, the potato guns, hospital, the road, the mansion? Homes? The musical score, use of Beethoven works?
3. The framing of the plot: pretending to be dead, chaos happening around one, calm within? Surviving?
4. The bank robbery, the preparations by the family, the boy and the lollipops, the filming, people’s reactions? The flashbacks to other pranks, the singing in the park of the song, Kill your Parents? Baxter winning the beauty contest? Black-and-white scenes? The Romeo and Juliet episode, brother and sister, the kiss, reactions?
5. The children A and B, ages, participating in the pranks, the art, the particular episodes? Their parents, the ideas about art, lived, unpredictable, effect? Romeo and Juliet and the participation of the teacher? The shock for Annie?
6. The children as adults, Annie looking at the videos, the situation, the news of their parents being dead? The plot going back one month?
7. Annie, her reputation, in films, the challenge by the director to bear her breasts, her negative reaction, her reflection on control, deciding to do it, brazenly (but the film not actually showing it)? The magazine, her drinking problem, the interviewer, writing his thesis on her parents, spending the night together, the summons from Baxter?
8. Baxter, his books, late with his editor? The article on the potato shooters, his enjoying it, hit on the head, hospital, phoning any, unable to fly, the notification of his parents?
9. Parents, older, in themselves, the clips from the variety of interviews from 2012, Caleb and his elaboration about the art, the activities, the vitality, the shock? The role of each parent in the pranks/art? The coming to get Baxter?
10. Their friendship with Hobart, the clips of interviews with him, the past, his encouragement, his theories, his being shot, falling out with Caleb and Camille?
11. Caleb and Camille going on holiday, the mother allowing her paintings to be discovered, her art, bequeathing them to her children? Secret from her husband? The accident, the blood, the disappearance? The police and the interviews? Annie and Baxter, believing about the deaths or not? The possibilities?
12. The period of the investigation? Baxter, his lecture, urging the students to write down their harsh ideas and thoughts? Annie and her listening to his lecture?
13. The decision, a new life, getting rid of everything, the yard sale, the teacher and the beauty queen sash, hearing the record of their song?
14. Going to visit the teacher, meeting the boys, the discussion, Baxter and his searching the house, discovering the video, Caleb slashing himself for the blood for the hoax?
15. The teacher, her relationship with Caleb, sons, her commitment to the artwork? Caleb arriving, the groceries, his story, the supreme act of art?
16. The visit to Hobart, the truth, giving the information?
17. Going to see Camille, justifying the situation, her love for her husband, everything for her husband and the effect on her children?
18. Annie and Baxter walking away, a new life, Baxter reading his story about the children, themselves? A new life?
