In the Family

There is a fine line that has to be walked whenever talking about gay rights in a film and Patrick Wang walked it like a champion. In the Family is a story about a father, played by the director, Patrick Wang, who loses his life partner, played by Trevor St. John, in a tragic car accident and is left alone with their son, Chip. The movie is a true work of art from beginning to end. There is so much said in this movie about what family is and what it means to be family. In the Family also takes a deep look into what is love, how you should mourn for a lost loved one, and how to get back to the normal routine of life. Patrick Wang breaks new ground in getting himself and his actors to display the truest emotions that make up the very core of what it means to be human. As the film progresses, you can see a change in all the characters as they try to adapt to life once again. The cinematography of the film is so simplistic that it makes the movie all the more real and beautiful, almost as if the audience is poking their heads into the life of a man who is thousands of miles away. This emotionally touching film deserves all of the praise it has been getting and it can definitely be said that In the Family is one of the most moving American indie of this year.

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.

Patrick Wang focuses the image in a way that allows the viewer to imagine the other spaces not shown on screen. He also carefully selects each frame to reveal or obscure what is relevant to each moment. I have no other term for it but 360 degree acting. And included in this acting ensemble are architecture, objects, sounds, the movement of dust.

What startles too is the amount of time taken to get to know people. I can tell that the actors know this time will be taken, that their portraits will unfold in a more natural way because I saw them relax and actually find responses that at times startled them (themselves). Perhaps this is the greatest homage to actors an actor/ director/ writer can give.

In the accumulation of moments, I felt like I knew this house, I knew what it was to spend time with these people, with this young boy 'Chip', and so when moments such as the trial opened up or we see Joey (Wang)'s shoulders and back of head while he's making a book, emotion came up in me in a subtler way. My experience was less one of spectator and more one of someone who was a friend of this character. At one point, I did utter aloud in reference to Chip, 'please let him come home' in my living room viewing this film all by myself!

I was reading an interview with Alexander Payne in Film Comment recently and he said something like 'we have no idea yet what a film could be'. I think that Mr. Wang has taken his opportunity and really produced something he himself understands and we all must see. I'm thrilled that the film has been made.

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.

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.