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Family Law AKA Derecho de Familia
R1 - America - Genius Products Review written by and copyright: Razzak/Stevie McCleary (18th July 2007). |
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The Film
 “Family Law” (AKA “Derecho de Familia”) is an Argentinean film directed and by Daniel Burman. Subtitled, and with plenty of narration, it follows the story of Perelman (Daniel Hendler) who has daddy issues. His father (Arturo Goetz), also only referred to as Perelman, is an attorney and has never been particularly close with his son. This all becomes a problem when Perelman Jr. has a son (Eloy Burman) of his own and has to deal with how to be close to him. And thus…stuff happens. Therein lays the problem for writing a review for this film. Stuff just…happens. There is not a strong and powerful overriding arc that the film takes you through. It is more like a collection of quaint vignettes all strung together by the lead character’s narration, an insight in the life of a few people as seen through his eyes. However, this becomes hard to explain in text. So what am I to do? Firstly, the DVD case must be able to help? “Funny and touching!” proclaims the excerpt from Ken Fox (TV Guide). Well, it certainly is that. That’s a good way to describe the film. What else…Chelsea Bain from BostonHerald.com proclaims it “A gem and a must-see!” Is that it? Four adjectives all up? Did these people not know how to more closely define the film, or was there just not enough room on the DVD artwork? Here comes the Internet. Always a good tool to aid a mental block by searching to see what other people had commented about it. I looked at ten reviews of “Family Law” and the common theme was that people liked it…and that their comments were always about five lines long. It seems that either people can’t find much to say about the film…or there is no simple way to break it down. In fact, almost every review that tried to breakdown the plot seemed to be talking about a different film to the other reviews. Such is the nature of a film that is made up of so many different parts. So is it a good film? Probably. To be honest, most of it has already blurred together. It springs from mundane to poignant haphazardly throughout. When I think about it, I think of many a cute little scene (Perelman Jr. discussing his wife-to-be and her Pilate’s jumps to mind) and other minor sections that are either fascinating or heart-warming. But as a whole? As a film? Is it greater than the sum of its parts? I don’t really know. The best word for a film like this (and Lord knows I’ve read enough of people trying to search for longer than a few words to describe it) might be ‘endearing’. Not full of action & story but possessing a solid heart. The key theme is the nature of fatherhood and the relations between fathers and sons, which appears to be a subject close to the writer/director’s heart. One review simply states that Perelman “dotes on his son, gets nagged by his dad — end of story”, which is not exactly true…but pretty close anyway. If you like quirky little ‘endearing’ movies, then you might like this one. I find it difficult to recommend due to not being able to fully get a handle on it. Maybe you can. And then maybe you can write a suitable review for it.
Video
Presented in the film’s original theatrical ratio of 1.85:1 this non-anamorphic transfer is a slap in the face. That’s right you read it correctly non-anamorphic. After 10 years or DVDs being on the market I find it hard to understand that non-anamorphic transfers are still being released! This is the standard and any release not putting the effort in should be considered sub-standard, same goes to anyone that crops or alters a filmmaker’s intention for how the film should be seen. This transfer also suffers from a few other problems such as sharpness isn’t consistent, colors appear muted and vibrancy and detail isn’t great. Blacks appear flat and there is some minor noise amongst the black levels. This is highly disappointing.
Audio
A single Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 surround track is included and it’s nothing spectacular. This is a fairly rudimentary 5.1 track that presents the dialogue cleanly and without distortion, minor direction surrounds kick in and music softly plays but for the most part it’s confined to the front speakers. Optional subtitles are included in English, English for the hearing impaired and Spanish.
Extras
Genius Products has included a few extras such as a featurette, some deleted scenes and the film’s theatrical trailer plus a collection of bonus trailers. Below is a closer look at these supplements. First up is "The Making of Family Law", a brief featurette that runs for 17 minutes 31 seconds, this is the standard fluff style EPK piece that covers the basics such as what the film is about and the inspiration behind it, the cast talk about their characters and working on the film as we get a glimpse at some behind-the-scenes footage. Following that are 3 deleted scenes that include: - "A Day Out With Dr. Perelman" which runs for 1 minute 29 seconds, Perelman Sr. and Jr. travel through the subway and on train as Sr. talks shop the whole way through. - "New Office" runs for 2 minutes 1 second, Perelman Jr. takes a look at a potential new office. - "Pool Time" runs for 2 minutes 7 seconds, Perelman Jr. spends time with his son at the pool. Also included is the film’s original theatrical trailer which runs for 2 minutes flat. Rounding out the extras are a series of bonus trailers for: - "Penelope" which runs for 2 minutes 32 seconds. - "Yo Soy Buricua" which runs for 1 minute 24 seconds. - "After The Wedding" which runs for 2 minutes 17 seconds. - "The Aura" which runs for 1 minute 46 seconds. - "Princesas" which runs for 2 minutes 14 seconds.
Overall
This show has been reviewed by Stevie McCleary. The DVD specifications and extras have been reviewed by Noor Razzak.
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