It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

I liked all of the performances. How can you not? The actors are awarded household names. That said, the story is full on bad taste, beginning to end. I was not aware there was a book. I read a review saying the book is better and did not translate well onto the screen. Well, I can see that. If one would tell me the whole story of this movie one day, and if they were a good story teller, there is a chance I would find it a little amusing. To make matters worse, the movie starts a plot that grows into a crescendo that just does not pay off at the end. Without spoiling, I will say, I felt personally depressed by how poorly constructed and little grasp of reality the story takes a turn into so it can get finalized. To say something positive, the music is fun. The catchy song the kids perform saying that they should kill their parents is hilarious.

Opening titles. Jason Bateman stands in a farm field, looking wary and bemused. He cringes, as he is shot in the face, in slow motion, by a potato gun. Now - raise your hand if you'd expect this to be accompanied by a freeze-frame, dinging sound effect, and dry Ron Howard narration quipping "Baxter Fang was having a bad day."* Yeah; me too. Sadly, The Family Fang, Bateman (doubling as director)'s adaptation of Kevin Wilson's ode to the emotional alienation of a dysfunctional family unable to extricate life from pretentious, avant garde performance art, has nothing so unconventional on its mind. Instead, it's an unrelentingly somber affair, lacking the playfulness and dark comedy of Wilson's novel, in favour of a wholly dour take on the destructiveness of art. Sure, any story of a family imploding is inherently melancholic, but eradicated are the sardonic moments of deadpan wry humour amidst calamity that Bateman, of all people, should consider second nature after his tenure with the Family Bluth. Instead, the entirety of The Family Fang is tinged with a greyish, 'rainy day' filter and accompanied by an austere tinkling piano, as if playing up their farcical performance art misadventures as high tragedy. Unfortunately, this austerity backfires, and, where the riffs of levity should help accentuate the emotional weight of the story, the incessant heaviness instead makes it all seem… well, a bit funny. This isn't to say The Family Fang is an overall poor film – it's capably written and shot, well-paced, including a couple of well-orchestrated twists along the way as the film flirts with the murder mystery genre in its second act, and a good bit with a crossbow. The Fangs' artistic incursions/chaotic guerilla public disturbances are fun, albeit a touch toothless (get it). Similarly, Bateman allows scenes to play with a relaxed naturalism that helps the cast sell some of their more constructed dialogue. It's just all so utterly joyless that even sequences with the sort of exquisitely cringeworthy setups that should play as uncomfortable comedy gold are simply a slog to trudge through. Even intercut sequences of pretentiously superfluous art critic banter critiquing the integrity of the Fang's work simply play as sullen rather than playfully scathing. And it's pretty clear that when Walken's Caleb Fang relentlessly pontificates on 'great art should make you feel things,' glum and restless was not what he had in mind.As the two children desperately trying to siphon through their baggage to carve out their own artistic careers (and functional lives) amidst their parents' warped shadows, Nicole Kidman and Bateman himself do give strong performances, Kidman's peppery indignation making a good foil against Bateman's timidly sarcastic resignation. Similarly, no one could be perfectly cast as the kooky but emotionally abusive Caleb Fang than Christopher Walken, but he's used so sparingly, and plays so caustically bitter the whole time, that his weirdness is too acidic to enjoy. Maryann Plunkett does bring a credible goofiness and impressively nuanced subtle sadness to his eccentric wife. Still, it's a shame, given the comedic potential of all involved, that Bateman sets the dial so firmly to melodrama, as, try as they might, the cast can't help but feel fairly wasted. There's a certain twisted irony in such a drably conventional take on pretentious artistic posturing that it's tempting to give Bateman the benefit of the doubt of pulling audiences' legs with a meta-critique. Still, even the most generously reflexive audiences will likely be too bummed out by the time the credits roll to properly navigate the onion skins of irony to care. It's a shame, as The Family Fang, on paper, has every facet of a worthwhile film in place - a valid lampooning of the boundaries, subjectivity, and value of art, as well as a sterling cast selling a more familiar retreading of how gosh-darn broken families can get. Still, it's inescapable: the film, beyond its capable moments, is obvious, emotionally forced, and resoundingly refuses to play with the boundaries of its art form. In short: it's everything the Fangs would despise. And this time, they may be on to something.-6.5/10*Oh COME on - clearly Bateman had Arrested Development on the brain enough to rebrand his character from the novel's Buster. Just sayin'.

This Be The Verse, by Philip Larkin, opens with the lines: "They f*ck you up, your mum and dad. They may not mean to, but they do." The Family Fang is basically an exploration of that thesis. The parents of two damaged individuals go missing. The siblings come together to try and find them, one believing they have fallen foul of serial killers, the other thinking this is another prank in a long line of stunts their parents are famous for. All the actors do credible turns, but the themes could be explored more deeply. The revelation that the father never wanted children should impact much more heavily than it does. The waning career of Kidman's actor character seems a slight and peripheral concern. Bateman's near death-by-potato is funny, but doesn't resonate to a deeper malaise. The film carries the comedy well, but the darkness is less truthful and engaging. A spotty film, with bright moments, but I wanted more than it delivered.

This film tells the story of two siblings of behavioural artists Caleb and Camille, who have to play along to their parents cruel and traumatic pranks. After they grow up, they continue to deal with issues regarding the past, and even bigger issues in the present.Wow. I have not expected the story to be so engaging and engrossing. It draws me in because it provokes people to think what is art and what is not art. I feel so sad for the siblings because their childhood years are traumatised repeatedly by the parents. The ending is intense and evokes much feelings in me. I liked "The Family Fang" and I would undoubtedly recommend others to watch it.