Family Law
(aka Derecho de familia/2006/IFC)
Picture:
C+ Sound: B- Extras: C Film: B-
Dealing
with father/son relationships is something so many films seem to have trouble
doing, especially when it is so rare they try in the first place. Three generations are covered in
writer/director Daniel Burman’s Family
Law (aka Derecho de familia/2006)
and involves a patriarch lawyer who ants his son to go into the same
business. Now a man, he wants his own
life, then has a son of his own. Though
he wants to be his own man and have his own individual mark, he can still see
common denominators with his own son that marks the relationship he had with
his father in the first place.
Well, the
family is on the functional side, but the film makes sappy assumptions about
families that they are always sacred and always work, which is a big lie and
why this subject is rarely addressed in any way to being with. The grandson is a cure kid and the camera
takes to the toddler playing him immediately, but as good as the acting and
recreation of family is, the film never makes any deep exploration of its
subjects. There is no true character
study here. The title almost makes the
film sound pretentious and like some kind of Right Wing propaganda. Fortunately, it is worth a look.
The
letterboxed 1.78 X 1 image is soft and though Ramiro Civita’s cinematography is
nicely shot and always watchable, this deserved a better transfer. The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is better and César
Lerner’s score is not bad. Surrounds use
his much and some ambience as its highlights, but the mix at least has some
character if it is not a masterwork.
Extras include deleted scenes that are fair and a making of featurette.
- Nicholas Sheffo
