We Are Family

Rating: 10/10 (21 January 2007)

I love this movie! This rag tag family, beyond dysfunctional, is about an annoying group of people as one can ever hope to meet, let alone have to spend an hour and a half with them in a darkened movie theatre. But little by little they grow on you. Little by little you start to laugh at them, accept them, and then ultimately take them to your heart. Why? Beyond their quirkiness, beyond their ridiculous personalities, beyond the comic book situations they find themselves in is a tale of love and decency. And family! People who need people! (Sorry for the cliché - somehow it doesn't feel out of place in describing this movie!) During the roller coaster journey in that gradually deteriorating yellow bus, they fight, they bicker, they get on each other's nerves, but ultimately they embrace each other, with a knowing understanding that is deep and enduring. That yellow bus keeps trucking along, and that family with their deep, deep underlying bonds of love and genuine affection outwits all those people and life events gnawing at their lives, trying to crush them every step of the way. Gnaw away! It doesn't matter. They'll endure with those heads held high in defiance and pride. Between the almost vaudevillian moments that abound are scenes of such tenderness and real emotions, scenes which are really profound: the grandfather's hotel room bedtime chat with his beloved granddaughter, the way in which the uncle and brother get the young girl to eat her chocolate ice cream in the diner, the wordless hug the girl gives her devastated brother on the side of the road. Priceless moments, all! Annnnnnnd.....talk about funny! The final scene beats out Borat for the funniest scene of the year. It is set up so beautifully, and takes the audience by such surprise - I don't think I've heard belly laughs like that in a long, long time.....at least not since Borat! See this film - relax, enjoy, embrace....and love!