From the realm of British cinema comes an Extremely wicked, shocking and painful mess. ‘A Family Affair follows’ Joe Wilkinson’s Edward as in the midst of losing his beloved hotel, all while having his strikingly sluggish extended family in for a visit, but is Edward’s painful peril worth your time?
Unfortunately, the answer is a resounding no as ‘A Family Affair’ while set out with the best of intentions with what should be superb ideas fails to capture the laughs that a true comedy needs. Director Warren Fischer clearly has a vision in mind with characters that on paper work as comedic genius however, the lacklustre script and bizarre decision to set a 70-minute runtime never allow the film to reach its full potential as it continuously rushes through the stories of what feels like a million characters, thus resulting in the viewer ultimately not caring about a single one of them. Speaking of the characters, while the apparent talents of the cast, should be oozing especially from the likes of Joe Wilkinson as Edward, no actor is allowed to ferociously flourish as they should due to that downright horrifying decision to set a 70-minute runtime as this constantly plagues the film and prevents the possible potential of a beautiful story of loss, laughs and love.
In a world full of films that master the craft of edgy comedies such as ‘The Hangover’, ‘ The 40 Year Old Virgin’ and countless others to the disappointment of many ‘A Family Affair’ simply doesn’t possess that spark of comedy in which those other films possess. This is due to the painful fact that this film simply doesn’t unleash the laughs that it so clearly intends to as it fluctuates itself with an unforgiving script as the film continuously attempts to present that edgy humour that has become so synonymous with the genre, all while not understanding the requirement of the genius writing required to craft the specific type of comedy in question thus causing the viewer to sooner or later lose all interest in the film and creates what no film should ever strive to create: boredom.
While ‘A Family Affair’ does possess some saving graces: namely an entertaining and comedic musical score and a sometimes beautiful British setting, the film unfortunately has few saving graces. Though it can be admired that Fischer and team made a film of this scale on a seemingly small scale budget the film’s continuous attempts at raunchy, edgy, and spicy jokes sadly misses the mark as it strives to blend into others like it such as the classic British comedy series ‘The Inbetweeners’ all of the jokes possess the potential to create these laughs so synonymous to the genre that it forgets to actually write these jokes to the said potential that is so clearly there.
Overall, while ‘A Family Affair’ so clearly possesses the raw potential for the comedy genre that so many before it has achieved, the film ultimately is bound down by a poor script, a horrendously restrictive runtime and characters that the viewer simply does not care for.
Possesses the raw potential for the comedy genre
Movie title: A Family Affair
Movie description: A cash-strapped hotel manager (Wilkinson) is forced to stave off interest from wealthy buyers at a public auction whilst hosting his in-laws on their wedding anniversary.
Date published: May 27, 2024
Country: UK
Duration: 1h 12m
Director(s): Warren Fischer
Actor(s): Rory Acton Burnell, Laura Aikman, Jane Asher
Genre: Comedy
Aly has a strong passion for film as he enjoys reviewing and analysing them. He has written for Hey U Guys, The Hollywood News and The People’s Movies. He is an aspiring screenwriter and has had much interest by professionals in the industry. For the bread and butter, he teaches English Language and Literature in secondary school which he truly enjoys, but has dreams to enter the film industry professionally. He loves networking as making good contacts is key to moving forward.
