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Family Hero review
:. Director: Thierry Klifa
:. Starring: Gérard Lanvin, Catherine Deneuve
:. Running Time: 1:43
:. Year: 2006
:. Country: France
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With the city of Nice as the spectacular setting, the actors of Family Hero shine and shimmer as brightly as the azure waters that surround them in this drama that brings together a group of people who would rather not refer to themselves as "family".
Death means a funeral and sometimes seeing people you'd rather avoid. The inevitable happens when harbored guilt, anger, secret love affairs, failures and passion all come pouring out as people search for answers and in some rare cases, a way to forgive.
If the characters look familiar (and you've seen Orchestra Seats recently), it's because they are. Claude Brasseur plays the patriach-transvestite-nightclub owner whose death brings everyone together (he was the dying art collector in Avenue Montaigne). Christophe Thompson, son of Danièle Thompson, co-wrote the script. The feel is very similar because ultimately the high world of art, theatre & music in Orchestra Seats has been transposed to a cabaret bar in Nice where there might be more bare breasted women, but the worries and fears are basically the same.
Smart dialogue combines effervescently with the magnetic onscreen presence of French stars. The magnificent and sharp-tongued Catherine Deneuve is devilishly delightful as the one everyone tries to avoid in the film, and her banter with has-been magician Gérard Lanvin is a treat. Sultry Emmanuelle Béart holds her own as a cabaret singer looking for love while Valérie Lemercier (who played a self-involved actress in Orchestra Seats) is hilarious as the comandante stage manager of the nightly burlesque show at the nightclub. Geraldine Pailhas and Michael Cohen round out the cast nicely as half-siblings trying to make sense of the mess left behind by their transvestite godfather.
Though it takes a bit to work out all of the relationships among the characters, Family Hero is satisfying because of the way familial problems are resolved (or at least dealt with). To do that in a nightclub in Nice is even better…
Anji Milanovic
 French Movies: Reviews 2012 - present
French Films: 1998 - 2011 Reviews
French Music Reviews
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