The Family Friend (2007) Movie Information:

The Family Friend (2007) Directed by: Paolo Sorrentino The Family Friend (2007) Written by: Paolo Sorrentino The Family Friend (2007) Cast: Giacomo Rizzo, Fabrizio Bentivoglio, Laura Chiatti, Luigi Angelillo, Clara Bindi, Barbara Valmorin, Marco Giallini, Alina Nadelea, Roberta Fiorentini, Elias Schilton, Lorenzo Gioielli, Giorgio Colangeli

The Family Friend (2007) U.S. Distributor: Not available at this time The Family Friend (2007) U.K. Distributor: Not available at this time

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The Family Friend (2007) Synopsis:

Geremia (Rizzo), is a small, hunched-up loan shark in Rome. He's stinking rich, but he lives in stark poverty with his bed-ridden mother (Bindi), pinching every penny. And everyone else's. He worms his way into his clients' life by befriending them, offering to help them in their time of need, then ruthlessly collecting each debt with the help of his cowboy henchman Gino (Bentivoglio) and twin pizza spinners. His latest client is a man (Angelillo) trying to pay for a first-class wedding for his sexy daughter (Chiatti). And the daughter might be Geremia's weak spot.

The Family Friend (2007) Movie Review:

After The Consequences of Love, Sorrentino is back with another steadily paced but profoundly quirky look into human nature, which plays out like a creepy version of The Merchant of Venice.

Geremia (Rizzo), is a small, hunched-up loan shark in Rome. He's stinking rich, but he lives in stark poverty with his bed-ridden mother (Bindi), pinching every penny. And everyone else's. He worms his way into his clients' life by befriending them, offering to help them in their time of need, then ruthlessly collecting each debt with the help of his cowboy henchman Gino (Bentivoglio) and twin pizza spinners. His latest client is a man (Angelillo) trying to pay for a first-class wedding for his sexy daughter (Chiatti). And the daughter might be Geremia's weak spot.

As one character observes, a family friend is someone who's there when you need him, and also when you don't. Sorrentino films this tale in a languid, observational way that catches tiny details in each scene and continually gives us insights into the characters. It's suggestive and a little surreal, almost Lynchian in its mixture of earthiness and wackiness.

The most clever thing about the film is Geremia's subtle complexity. This is a slimy, manipulative, greedy man whose avarice knows no limits. He's a vulture ready to swoop at the first sign of weakness. Yet Rizzo plays him so we also sense a pathetic longing within him for a normal life. And we also see his disarming charm, how he uses words to distract people from his unsightly appearance.

The characters around Geremia are a little more enigmatic. Next to him they seem completely trustworthy, but little chinks appear here and there--power games, plots and schemes. The subtle way they all circle around each other is loaded with black comedy and offbeat plot twists that make us ask all sorts of questions. The plot does provide most of the answers, leading to a satisfying conclusion that's both surprising and nicely subdued. But then the entire film is subdued, but film fans who are fed up with nonstop action will love it.

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The Family Friend (2007) review written by: Rich Cline