Family Business (1989 film)

Last updated
Family Business
Family Business (movie poster).jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Sidney Lumet
Written by Vincent Patrick
Produced by Lawrence Gordon
Starring
Cinematography Andrzej Bartkowiak
Edited by Andrew Mondshein
Music by Cy Coleman
Production
companies
Distributed by Tri-Star Pictures
Release date
  • December 15, 1989 (1989-12-15)
Running time
110 minutes [1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$12,195,695

Family Business is a 1989 American neo noir crime film directed by Sidney Lumet, with a screenplay by Vincent Patrick, based on his novel. It stars Sean Connery, Dustin Hoffman, and Matthew Broderick.

Contents

Plot

Jessie McMullen is a Scottish American widower who emigrated with his Sicilian wife to New York in 1946. A lovable rogue, incorrigible womaniser and tough guy, Jessie is proud of his criminal past and lifestyle. He raised his son Vito to follow in his footsteps, but Vito went straight at 21 when his son Adam was born. Vito now runs a thriving wholesale Twelfth Avenue meat-packing warehouse and has left his criminal life behind.

Ashamed of his family's past, Vito married his middle-class Jewish sweetheart and has tried to set a good example for their son, which in his mind, means keeping Adam away from his criminally minded yet charming grandfather. Little does Vito understand that this strategy has backfired; the mystery surrounding Jessie, coupled with his strict educational upbringing, causing Adam to idolize his grandfather. Adam even puts up bail, borrowing it from Vito, one night after Jessie is charged with assault from a bar tavern fight.

Adam is in college with a scientific scholarship and has a bright future. However, six months before graduating, he drops out, complaining to Jessie that he was already "being put on a pension plan and that they had my whole future mapped out." So when he unveils a scheme for a grand burglary, it impresses his grandfather, but Vito is surprised and bitterly disappointed. He warns his son not to pursue this and even slaps his face in a bar to drive home the point. This pushes Adam even closer to his grandfather, who can't wait to take a shot at a million-dollar payday.

Jesse chastises Adam's older girlfriend over lunch after hearing she's making money sitting on seven prime NYC apartments owned by terminally cancer patients via a contact in a cancer hospital,he lectures her that it's immoral to steal from someone legally while taking no risk, calling her a parasite.

Jessie is eager to reenlist his reformed son Vito into the planned heist, calling the scheme "the sweetest deal of my life." The more he hears, the more tempted Vito is to give up the safe but dull life he has carved out for himself and return to the wild days of his youth robbing with Jessie. So the three generations of McMullens embark on one final great criminal adventure, "The Caper" with Vito begrudgingly saying yes on the premise that he is there to watch out for Adam along the way.

The plan is to steal valuable scientific research from a lab. It backfires horribly when, having seemingly pulled off the heist successfully, Adam forgets to take a logbook that is a vital prerequisite to being paid the million dollars. Adam dashes back into the building to retrieve it, but in his haste he sets off an alarm on his way out. Vito and Jessie can only watch helplessly from afar as Adam is captured by the police. At the last minute, Adam manages to throw the logbook over a fence which is retrieved by Jessie and Vito in the getaway car.

Vito is heartbroken and dreads his wife Elaine finding out what has happened. He and Jessie hire an expensive shyster lawyer for Adam's defense, but are told the only way for Adam to avoid a 15-year sentence is to give up his two mystery accomplices and "the goods" taken in the heist. Vito's wife angrily instructs him to give himself up along with Jessie, whatever it takes, to get her darling son Adam a reduced sentence. Vito locates the vials stolen from the lab that Jessie's lover Margie has been safekeeping, Margie instructing him to "get that kid out of jail."

Discovering that the scientific research they stole had been faked, by the company to buy six more months of research time, Jessie tracks down Adam's former professor Jimmy Chu (who had double-crossed Adam by selling him on the robbery idea) and makes Chu pay him. A crestfallen Vito, meanwhile, gives in to his wife's suggestion that he give himself and Jessie up. He turns over the stolen goods, whereupon Jessie is taken into custody.

In court a judge finds all three McMullens to be at fault, but after generously placing both Vito and Adam on probation, he throws the book at Jessie, giving him a 15 year sentence, tantamount at his age to a sentence of life imprisonment or a death sentence.

Adam visits Jessie devotedly in jail while banning Vito from his life. Vito's explanations that he did what he did for Adam's own good fall on deaf ears. Adam calls him a "piece of garbage" and lambasts him for having "ratted out your own father."

Adam confidently says he's out from under Vito and Jesse replies but can you get out from under me now?

Jessie dies in prison, but not before telling Adam that he spent all the money Jimmy Chu paid him to keep quiet, and he didn't share any with him, because he might be going to prison and thought he had a little vigorish coming to him. Upon hearing Jesse is dying, Vito frantically attempts to see Jesse one last time but he is minutes late to say a last goodbye as Jesse died earlier that day. As the body is being carted away, Vito makes an attempt sprinting despairingly down a long corridor to try to intercept the body on its way to the morgue.He falls short by mere seconds as the electronic doors close and Vito breaks down in tears sobbing at his lost opportunity to say goodbye

Vito and Adam eventually make their peace months later. Vito agrees with Adam that the most fun they have had as a family was the caper. Together, they give Jessie a grand sendoff, scattering his ashes from the roof of Vito's childhood Hells Kitchen home as Danny Boy plays.

Cast

Reception

The movie was critically panned, with The New York Times stating that although "the three stars are good actors[,] they have nothing much to work with. Their biggest challenge is to make the audience believe they are blood relatives, a question that would be quickly dismissed if the script were more compelling. The screenplay also seems to have thrown Mr. Lumet off stride. Among other things, he is usually an efficient director. Family Business, however, is so full of waste space that it has not one but two Irish wakes, where stolen clothing is sold to the mourners who get drunk and sing Danny Boy , which is at least once too often." [2]

The Los Angeles Times stated that it was "a frail little caper movie that's overawed by its cast. With Sean Connery, Dustin Hoffman and Matthew Broderick playing three generations of a family, you've got a lot of talent at your disposal. Forget for the moment the fact that, in this movie about the persistence of family genes, none of the actors remotely resembles each other. Forget, too, that Dustin Hoffman is seven years younger than Connery, who plays his father here. Years of agent-inspired casting have inured audiences to weirder confabs than this. But there should be a pay-off to the oddness, some compelling dramatic reason for these three to get together. Like a good script, maybe. Instead, the movie lays out a slew of half-baked ideas and never turns on the burner." [3]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times quipped in an otherwise positive 3-star review, "What does Sidney Lumet's 'Family Business' want to be? A caper movie, or a family drama? I ask because the movie seems to pursue both goals with equal success until about the three-quarter mark and then leaves leftover details of the caper hanging disconcertingly in midair." [4]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , 35% of 17 critics' reviews are positive. [5] Metacritic , which uses a weighted average , assigned the film a score of 54 out of 100, based on 17 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. [6] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "B−" on scale of A+ to F. [7] [8]

Box office

The movie debuted at number 6. [9] The film found greater success with video rentals. [10]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sean Connery</span> Scottish actor (1930–2020)

Sir Thomas Sean Connery was a Scottish actor. He was the first actor to portray fictional British secret agent James Bond on film, starring in seven Bond films between 1962 and 1983. Connery originated the role in Dr. No (1962) and continued starring as Bond in the Eon Productions films From Russia with Love (1963), Goldfinger (1964), Thunderball (1965), You Only Live Twice (1967) and Diamonds Are Forever (1971). Connery made his final appearance in the franchise in Never Say Never Again (1983), a non-Eon-produced Bond film.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dustin Hoffman</span> American actor (born 1937)

Dustin Lee Hoffman is an American actor and filmmaker. As one of the key actors in the formation of New Hollywood, Hoffman is known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and emotionally vulnerable characters. He is the recipient of numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards, four BAFTA Awards, five Golden Globe Awards, and two Primetime Emmy Awards. Hoffman has received numerous honors, including the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1997, the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1999, and the Kennedy Center Honors Award in 2012. Actor Robert De Niro has described him as "an actor with the everyman's face who embodied the heartbreakingly human".

<i>Dog Day Afternoon</i> 1975 American crime drama film by Sidney Lumet

Dog Day Afternoon is a 1975 American biographical crime drama film directed by Sidney Lumet and produced by Martin Bregman and Martin Elfand. The film stars Al Pacino, John Cazale, James Broderick, and Charles Durning. The screenplay is written by Frank Pierson and is based on the Life magazine article "The Boys in the Bank" by P. F. Kluge and Thomas Moore. The feature chronicled the 1972 robbery and hostage situation led by John Wojtowicz and Salvatore Naturile at a Chase Manhattan branch in Brooklyn.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matthew Broderick</span> American actor (born 1962)

Matthew Broderick is an American actor. His roles include the Golden Globe–nominated portrayal of the title character in Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986), the voice of adult Simba in Disney's The Lion King (1994), and Leo Bloom in both the Broadway musical The Producers and its 2005 film adaptation. Other films he has starring credits in include WarGames (1983), Glory (1989), The Freshman (1990), The Cable Guy (1996), Godzilla (1998), Election (1999), Inspector Gadget (1999), You Can Count on Me (2000), and The Last Shot (2004). Broderick also directed himself in Infinity (1996) and provided voice work in Good Boy! (2003), Bee Movie (2007), and The Tale of Despereaux (2008).

<i>Entrapment</i> (film) 1999 film by Jon Amiel

Entrapment is a 1999 caper film directed by Jon Amiel and written by Ronald Bass. It stars Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta-Jones and includes Will Patton, Ving Rhames and Maury Chaykin. The film focuses on the relationship between investigator Virginia "Gin" Baker and professional thief Robert "Mac" MacDougal as they attempt a heist at the turn of the New Millennium. Simon West and Antoine Fuqua were both in talks to direct before Amiel was hired. The film was released theatrically in the United States on 30 April 1999 and in the United Kingdom on 2 July 1999.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andy García</span> Cuban - American actor (born 1956)

Andrés Arturo García Menéndez, known professionally as Andy García, is an American actor. He first rose to prominence acting in Brian De Palma's The Untouchables (1987) alongside Kevin Costner, Sean Connery, and Robert De Niro. He continued to act in films such as Stand and Deliver (1988), and Internal Affairs (1990). He then costarred in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather Part III (1990) as Vincent Mancini, for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sidney Lumet</span> American filmmaker (1924–2011)

Sidney Arthur Lumet was an American film director. Lumet started his career in theatre before transitioning to film where he gained a reputation for making realistic and gritty New York dramas which focused on the working class, tackled social injustices and often questioned authority.

<i>Suburban Commando</i> 1991 film by Burt Kennedy

Suburban Commando is a 1991 American science fiction action comedy film directed by Burt Kennedy, produced by Howard Gottfried, and written by Frank Cappello. The film stars Hulk Hogan, Christopher Lloyd, Shelley Duvall, and Larry Miller. Additionally, a young Elisabeth Moss briefly appears in her film debut.

<i>Heist</i> (2001 film) 2001 film by David Mamet

Heist is a 2001 American heist film written and directed by David Mamet and starring Gene Hackman, Danny DeVito and Delroy Lindo, with Rebecca Pidgeon, Ricky Jay and Sam Rockwell in supporting roles.

<i>Straight Time</i> 1978 American crime film

Straight Time is a 1978 American neo-noir crime drama film directed by Ulu Grosbard and starring Dustin Hoffman, Theresa Russell, Gary Busey, Harry Dean Stanton, M. Emmet Walsh and Kathy Bates. Its plot follows a lifelong thief in Los Angeles who struggles to assimilate in society after serving a six-year prison sentence. The film is based on the novel No Beast So Fierce by Edward Bunker, who also acts in the film.

<i>The Great Muppet Caper</i> 1981 film directed by Jim Henson

The Great Muppet Caper is a 1981 musical heist comedy film directed by Jim Henson and the second theatrical film featuring the Muppets. The film stars Muppet performers Henson, Frank Oz, Dave Goelz, Jerry Nelson, Richard Hunt, and Steve Whitmire, as well as Charles Grodin and Diana Rigg with special cameo appearances by John Cleese, Robert Morley, Peter Ustinov, and Jack Warden. The film was produced by ITC Entertainment and The Jim Henson Company and distributed by Universal Pictures. In the plot, the Muppets are caught up in a jewel heist while investigating a robbery in London.

<i>The Hill</i> (1965 film) 1965 film by Sidney Lumet

The Hill is a 1965 British prison drama war film directed by Sidney Lumet, set in an army prison in North Africa during the Second World War. It stars Sean Connery, Harry Andrews, Ian Bannen, Ossie Davis, Ian Hendry, Alfred Lynch, Roy Kinnear and Michael Redgrave.

Rosanna DeSoto is an American actress who has performed in films and television. She is best known for her roles in Stand and Deliver, for which she won an Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female, and in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country as Azetbur, the daughter of Klingon Chancellor Gorkon.

<i>The Anderson Tapes</i> 1971 film by Sidney Lumet

The Anderson Tapes is a 1971 American crime film directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Sean Connery and featuring Dyan Cannon, Martin Balsam and Alan King. The screenplay was written by Frank Pierson, based upon a best-selling 1970 novel of the same name by Lawrence Sanders. The film is scored by Quincy Jones and marks the feature film debut of Christopher Walken.

<i>Before the Devil Knows Youre Dead</i> 2007 film by Sidney Lumet

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead is a 2007 American crime thriller film directed by Sidney Lumet. The film was written by Kelly Masterson, and stars Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Marisa Tomei, and Albert Finney. The title comes from the Irish saying: "May you be in heaven a full half-hour before the devil knows you're dead". The film unfolds in a nonlinear narrative, repeatedly going back and forth in time, with some scenes shown repeatedly from differing points of view. It was the last film directed by Lumet before his death in 2011.

<i>The Offence</i> 1973 film by Sidney Lumet

The Offence is a 1973 British crime neo noir drama film directed by Sidney Lumet, based upon the 1968 stage play This Story of Yours by John Hopkins. It stars Sean Connery as police detective Johnson, who kills suspected child molester Kenneth Baxter while interrogating him. The film explores Johnson's varied, often aggressive attempts at rationalizing what he did, revealing his true motives for killing the suspect in a series of flashbacks. Trevor Howard and Vivien Merchant appear in major supporting roles. Bannen was nominated for a BAFTA award for his performance.

Vincent Francis Patrick was an American author and screenwriter. He wrote the cult crime novels The Pope of Greenwich Village and Family Business, and adapted both novels for the screen. The Pope of Greenwich Village, directed by Stuart Rosenberg and starring Eric Roberts, Mickey Rourke and Daryl Hannah, was released in 1984. Family Business, directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Sean Connery, Dustin Hoffman and Matthew Broderick, was released in 1989. He also co-wrote The Devil's Own and wrote uncredited early treatments for films including Beverly Hills Cop and The Godfather Part III.

<i>Tower Heist</i> 2011 heist comedy film directed by Brett Ratner

Tower Heist is a 2011 American heist comedy film directed by Brett Ratner, written by Ted Griffin and Jeff Nathanson, based on a story by Bill Collage, Adam Cooper and Griffin and starring Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy with Casey Affleck, Alan Alda, Matthew Broderick, Judd Hirsch, Téa Leoni, Michael Peña, and Gabourey Sidibe in supporting roles. The plot follows employees of an exclusive apartment building who lose their pensions in the Ponzi scheme of a Wall Street businessman and enlist the aid of a criminal, a bankrupt businessman, and an immigrant maid to break into his apartment and steal back their money while avoiding the FBI agents in charge of his case.

<i>The Art of the Steal</i> (2013 film) 2013 Canadian film

The Art of the Steal is a 2013 Canadian comedy film written and directed by Jonathan Sobol. It stars Kurt Russell, Jay Baruchel, Chris Diamantopoulos, Matt Dillon and Katheryn Winnick. It was shown at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival.

<i>The Cobbler</i> (2014 film) 2014 film

The Cobbler is a 2014 American magic realism comedy-drama film directed by Tom McCarthy and cowritten by McCarthy with Paul Sado. The film stars Adam Sandler, Cliff "Method Man" Smith, Ellen Barkin, Melonie Diaz, Dan Stevens, Fritz Weaver, Yul Vazquez, Steve Buscemi and Dustin Hoffman. The film tells the story of a cobbler who finds himself able to assume to the form of anyone by putting on their shoes that have been repaired by a special shoe stitching machine which comes in handy for him when it comes to dealing with a local thug and a slumlord. It was screened in the Special Presentations section at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival. The film was released March 13, 2015, by Image Entertainment. The film was panned by critics, and was a box-office bomb.

References

  1. ↑ "Family Business".
  2. ↑ Canby, Vincent (1989-12-15). "Movie Review - Family Business - Review/Film; 'Family Business,' a 3-Generation Caper - NYTimes.com". The New York Times . Retrieved 2012-07-04.
  3. ↑ Rainer, Peter (2007-07-04). "MOVIE REVIEW : 'Family Business': It's a Crime". Los Angeles Times . Archived from the original on 2012-04-17. Retrieved 2012-07-04.
  4. ↑ Roger Ebert (1989-12-15). "Family Business". Chicago Sun-Times . RogerEbert.com. Retrieved 2022-02-02.
  5. ↑ "Family Business". Rotten Tomatoes . Fandango Media. OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
  6. ↑ "Family Business". Metacritic .
  7. ↑ "Hollywood's Star Vehicles Sputter at the Christmas Box Office : Movies: 'Blaze,' 'We're No Angels' and 'Family Business' opened with high holiday hopes. Despite their six bankable male leads, the films have fallen flat". Los Angeles Times . 20 December 1989. In addition to mixed reviews from critics, those three movies were given Cinemascore audience grades in the B- range
  8. ↑ "FAMILY BUSINESS (1989) B-". CinemaScore . Archived from the original on 2018-12-20.
  9. ↑ Cerone, Daniel (1989-12-19). "Weekend Box Office". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved 2012-06-13.
  10. ↑ Hunt, Dennis (1990-08-02). "VIDEO RENTALS : 'Internal Affairs' Has Appeal". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved 2012-06-13.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.