The Family Tree
Taking the low-budget movie The Family Tree seriously is virtually impossible, given its overly
pedigreed cast and the vacuum it’s set in. As the dysfunctional Burnett family
falls apart in Serenity, Ohio, they do it on suspiciously empty streets and the
world’s most under-populated town fair. Extras were apparently out of the
question once the salaries for stars Hope Davis and Dermot Mulroney were paid.
After mother Bunnie (Davis) hits her head during an
afternoon quickie with her neighbor (Chi Martin), she awakens in the hospital
with no memory of her life after she and her husband Jack (Mulroney) were
married. Her twin children, the religious, gun-toting Eric (Max Thieriot) and
Kelly (Britt Robertson) are strangers to Bunnie; her relationship with her
neighbor is long forgotten. And a reconciliation with her manipulative mother
(Jane Seymour, showing up, saying her five lines and cashing the check) comes
as a shock.
Mark Lisson’s ambitious screenplay tackles adultery, the
second amendment, Christianity, the recession, in-laws, teenage sexuality,
white guilt and amnesia. To say that all of these topics gets short shrift over
the course of the film’s 95 minute running time is an understatement. Christina
Hendricks, Selma Blair, Gabrielle Anwar and Evan Handler all appear, briefly,
chew up the scenery and then disappear; their presence is more indicative of a
possible friendship with the producers or director Vivi Friedman than of the
script’s artistic merits.
Like the body of a peeping tom high school student that
hangs hidden in the Burnett’s tree for the duration of the film, the direction
of the movie remains dangling over audiences. The outré plotlines keep Friedman
from making a case for it as a satire about the modern family; the abbreviated
plotlines prevent the actors from creating fully realized characters. Instead,
we have a season’s worth of sitcom story lines, crammed into one narrative with
the assumption that the glossy, bold-faced name cast will make it work. That
they don’t is obvious by the film’s end. Why they even tried is less clear.
The Family Tree
Directed by Vivi Friedman
Running time: 95 min.