In the Family

You can and should read the many reviews and it'll give you a sense of this movie. Here's my takeaways.

First, I just wanted to know if the folks on the screen knew that they were being filmed. I'm not trying to be cute, but what I mean is this was a breathtaking experience of looking at real life, as it happened, to real people in real time. It doesn't get better than that.

I'm of an age where I've watched movies of three hours. Most were torturous. Some superb. Either of the two still felt like three hours. Except here! I was so captivated from the get go to the end and I could have kept on watching.

When it ended, I saw it was almost 4AM - Quickest three hours, I was so absorbed and can still feel for Joey and Cody and Chip, as if they were IRL Friends.

My topper most of the topper most rating is 9 and this deserves every bit it, actually a 9.9 if we used decimals.

This was that good. Surprised this wasn't recommended or suggested. I heard about in a French Reviewer's review on "Any Day Now" - Happy I translated it to English allowing me to find this hidden gem.

Joey Williams (Patrick Wang) and Cody Hines (Trevor St. John) are an interracial gay couple raising Cody's son Chip (Sebastian Banes) living in the American South. When Cody dies, his family and Joey slowly come apart resulting in Joey losing Chip.

The best thing about this is that it's not a melodrama where somebody is a cartoon villain. It is heart breaking at times. The ending is a tear jerker. The story is important, and compelling.

However, it must be judged as a movie and not as a social advocacy. For a first time indie, Patrick Wang does a great job of writing and directing. The biggest problem is the lack of editing. At 169 minutes, it is insanely long. There are long moments of nothing scenes. Patrick have these unthinkable long unimportant takes. It begs to be chop in half. It is possible to allow people time to sit and think. But it is not a good idea to force people to sit through nothing. When this movie works, it breaks your heart. When it doesn't work, it's unbearably boring.

Many critics could argue, perhaps convincingly, that "In the Family" could be edited from its almost 3 hours to 2 hours, however, the pacing of the film doesn't suffer from its length. And by taking time to develop the almost mundane everyday life of a gay couple raising a young son, the film is actually a bold political statement that speaks directly to every person who thinks being gay is somehow a non-stop sex fest. Because of that, the film makes a very strong point even before the issues at the heart of the movie become front and center. It's a family friendly film where sexual orientation is almost an afterthought of the movie and that is what sets the tone and makes it groundbreaking. That is a long winded way of saying that anyone who thinks the film should fit into a typical 2 hour movie formula, is missing the depth of the story and the emotional impact the pacing creates.

Many Asian-American actors would say they hate doing accents because they are connected with stereotypical roles, but Patrick Wang's southern accent probably wasn't what Asian-American actors had in mind and in this case it is a testament to Patrick's incredible acting abilities. I am one who thinks directors should direct and not also take on the demand of acting in their own films because both can suffer, but Patrick Wang's acting and directing are both amazing. He has embraced this film heart and soul and it's evident in its emotional complexity and perhaps this is a case where it could not have been as successful without Patrick in both roles.

In the film the downward spiral starts with the confrontation between Joey (Patrick Wang) and Chad's sister over the will and is a riveting scene that doesn't leave the viewer rooting for anyone, but actually feeling the pain and the point each is making about the circumstances. But for Joey it is the most devastating because everything in his life is gone overnight; his partner, his child, and his home. The loneliness and destruction of his life is powerfully and beautifully created by Patrick's acting and directing making this a heart wrenching film that shouldn't be missed. And the film's conclusion? Emotionally brilliant.

This is a distinctive film with a distinctive lead actor/director/writer, one that will probably be cited in future years as his first imperfect effort. It addresses an important issue - the uncertain rights of gay survivors - head-on from an unexpected, very individual point of view. Joey Williams, the southern-accented, low-key Asian protagonist, is a tremendously loving person - loving not only to his partner and their son (strikingly and adorably played by Sebastian Brodziak), but to others around him. As we learn his back-story as a foster child, this understated readiness to love becomes all the more moving. When he finds himself alone and having to fight for his son, his dilemma is all the more moving because he is clearly a person who, without being weak, sidesteps confrontation. His manner throughout is endearing and very specific, even as he encounters, in the most off- handed way, chilling and heartless homophobia at one of the most difficult moments of his life. The "issue" is certainly front and center here, but we care about him first and foremost as a person - luckily, since we spend far more time with him than one usually would in a film. There are also unexpected gestures of kindness and concern all through the film, one on the part of a Wise Man who appears from the most unexpected corner and reminds us that, even as Joey struggles for the right to be a father, he remains a tender soul in need of a father figure himself; at different moments, a glass of whiskey and a glass of water, each quietly offered, make it clear that he has found one. The film's unhurried pace often serves it well - one of the most moving sequences involves methodically taking out a beer and opening it - but there are also moments that are plain slow and others which keep pushing at a point that has already been made or linger overmuch on history. The film overall should have been at least a third shorter. By being as long as it is, the film actually dilutes the very real intensity of its central contemplation of family and its meaning. But these are flaws in an overall excellent film, one which is rarely predictable and often quietly surprising, above all very warm and human all the way through. Its low-key quirkiness, by the way, includes one of the more off-the-wall bits of product placement to be seen in an indie film, one that will delight the handful of fans who know and care who wrote "Wild Thing". As gracefully integrated as this is, one gets the sense that the director/writer knew the songwriter and wanted, as much as anything else, to help him out; a gesture which sums up the fundamentally loving nature of this entire project.

I found this film nothing short of amazingly moving. Patrick Wang blew me away by not only writing the film, but also directing, producing, and starring in it! It is a movie about love and struggle and fighting for what you know in your heart. I enjoyed the film because it didn't rush things, it took its time in letting the characters as well as the audience comprehend the situations as the story unraveled. It is said that, "The only thing stronger than fear is hope," and if there's one way to show that, its through this movie. Not only does the main character, played by Wang, have to deal with being gay in this day in age, he experiences even more turmoil as he continues to lose those close to him. It's a film about believing in hope to pushing yourself to the limit until you can't any longer, but making sure not to lose yourself along the way.