Fantastic!

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

This film deserves a whack job! What could have been an exceptionally funny film, a good suspenseful thriller, or operatic drama piece combining the mob and gay genres goes royally bad with "Friends and Family." The main idea of two openly gay mobsters goes against the grain of known mob history about having openly-free homosexuals operating in the mob. In this supposed comedy, one of the mobsters has visiting parents, while their understanding comrades prepare, with absolute unbelievable camp (which includes -- ho-hum, *yawn!* -- drag queens), to make a special event more illuminating. Thrown into the mix is perhaps the stupidest idea of a para-militia with their un-focused objective of launching an anti-government campaign at a mob-arranged dinner. Huh?!! All the sequences in this film are poorly executed, the writing is more flat-lined than a corpse in the back of a Buick, and most of all, the two leading gay mobster-boyfriends are absolutely unbelievable as a gay couple. They don't even share any affection to one another, or so much as a kiss, unlike Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal's more honorable portrayals in "Brokeback Mountain." "Friends and Family" is just plain awful. Whoever thought this film would be great to write and produce certainly didn't have the great fore-sight of forming what could've been another wise, potentially great mob tale. There is so much gripping and fantastic themes that can derive from the mob and gay genre. But "Friends and Family" opted for the more stereotypical route of camp and cross-dressing men sown into a mobster movie. This film absolutely deserves to be shot, burned, and kept six feet under, never to be viewed and heard of again!

Like so many gay movies, there is so much potential here, but it never matured during the artistic process. So many things were not quite there. The script with a little more polish, the directing with a little more experience, the acting moving a little faster, and the movie with a little more work would have been totally delightful. Two things bothered me most. 1. The lack of a kiss or any real intimacy between the gay couple. I kept hoping until the end that they would kiss - even a small peck.2. The pace. This movie was slow. Not sure whose fault this was. Did the director over control the actors not allowing them to move it along? Did the editor stretch everything to try meet an appropriate length? Not sure, but even the big action sequence toward the end was a waltz, when it should have been frenetic tarantella.There were a lot of funny ideas here, but the delivery was sooo slow. Pace, pace, pace, screwball comedies are about pace. Keep it moving. It may have been that the production staff (writer, director, etc) where just too impressed with themselves.The acting on the other was pretty good. I think with proper pacing they would have been exceptional. Yes, like so many low budget indie gay movies - I wish for a rewrite and a remake by a competent director. I wouldn't change the cast at all, just the creative/production staff. This could be a delightful charming hilarious movie, but it isn't quite there.By the way, if you listen to the commentary you may begin to understand what went wrong and who is at fault. Oh well, <sigh>.

Fun Fun Fun!The first time you watch it, you'll enjoy the punchlines and situationsThe second time you'll appreciate the clever story and plot.And this is one "gay" movie you really can take the grandparents and kids to.Most of the performances are tip-top, but there are a couple of wooden actors and couple of actors who are OVER the top. Still, even though it's not the most polished movie you'll see, it may be one of the most fun.

I gave this a "6" for being well intentioned, but to me it seemed to be trying too hard to catch middle of the road support.The characters don't develop convincingly at all - especially the supposed gay male couple who never even kiss properly. The most they do do is eye each other off. It smacked severely of straight actors playing gay for pay.This was the opening film of Brisbane's "Queer Film & Video Weekend" on 27th March 2003 - and though I didn't like it at all, the bulk of the audience (men and women) loved it.I much prefered the dark humour of "Nine Dead Gay Guys" which screened the next evening and which was unapologetic, inventive and fully entertaining. "Friends and Family" was really just fluffy - ala "Will & Grace".