Rent The Family Friend (2006)

3.5 of 5 from 87 ratings
1h 36min
Rent The Family Friend (aka L'amico di famiglia) Online DVD & Blu-ray Rental
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Synopsis:
Paolo Sorrentino's effortlessly stylish film centres on Geremia di Geremei, a sleazy and misanthropic small-time loan shark who lives in a dingy apartment with his invalid mother. When a cash-strapped couple approach him for a loan to pay for the wedding of their daughter Rosalba, Geremia finds himself helplessly obsessed by the bride-to-be's stunning beauty and takes full advantage of his self-proclaimed position as 'a friend of the family' to get as close to her as possible. But in the icily disdainful Rosalba, he may finally have met his match...
Actors:
, , , , , , , , , , , , Fabio Grossi, , , , , , , Simone Gualtieri
Directors:
Writers:
Paolo Sorrentino
Aka:
L'amico di famiglia
Studio:
Artificial Eye Film Company Ltd.
Genres:
Drama
Countries:
Italy
BBFC:
Release Date:
23/07/2007
Run Time:
96 minutes
Languages:
Italian Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles:
English
DVD Regions:
Region 2
Formats:
Pal
Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen 1.78:1 / 16:9
Colour:
Colour

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Reviews (2) of The Family Friend

No doubt a masterpiece to some... - The Family Friend review by CP Customer

Spoiler Alert
13/08/2009

Why do we watch films? The majority do it as a form of mindless or semi-mindless way of passing the time- it doesn't matter what critics think of the latest Bond or Harry Potter they're guaranteed a huge audience. For the rest of us there are several reasons- to be absorbed, to be stimulated (ie thought provoked), for "feelgood" reasons etc.etc. What makes a film "good" is when it deeply involves or intigues the viewer enough to make it memorable in a positive manner.

"Family Friend" is a film I may have admired more in my younger days & I can imagine long discussions with university friends about the meaning of this & that abstract scene. However when it boils down to it this is a film full of repulsive characters- there is not one character for whom I felt even a grain of sympathy- all of whom are dominated by a sex crazed 70 year old who is a "tailor" (read sweat shop worker) who is a loan shark; he in turn is dominated by his bedridden mother who watches TV all day long & is waited on hand & foot by him. The cast he wears on his arm & loses in the alternative ending is thus deeply symbolic...

Barely a scene goes by without some obvious sexual reference- be it a group of nubile girls playing volleyball or a seduction scene that may or may not be fantasy. How heavily does one have to have the lead character's obesessions rammed down one's throat?

There are some technically brilliant sequences but unless the idea of the film was to invoke nausea in its audience without showing anything overtly nauseating I don't know what the director was trying to accomplish.

2 out of 5 members found this review helpful.

Beauty and the Beast - The Family Friend review by TE

Spoiler Alert
22/04/2021

Not Paolo Sorrentino's best film (that would be either 'The Great Beauty' or 'Consequences of Love') but an intriguing story full of the Italian director's trademark visual flair. The narrative has echoes of fairy tales, like Beauty and the Beast, and of the Elizabethan plays of writers like Ben Jonson.

The "Beast" here is superbly acted by Giacomo Rizzo, who relishes a script full of pithy one-liners.

The sheer stylishness of Sorrentino's films sometimes threatens to overwhelm the content, but here he maintains a good balance between playful imagery and moral seriousness. There is also plenty of well chosen music and infectious dancing, things which feature strongly in his true masterpiece, 'The Great Beauty'.

0 out of 0 members found this review helpful.

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