Film Review: Family Portrait
Written and directed by Lucy Kerr, her film debut FAMILY PORTRAIT, is clearly personal but also somewhat universal. The film was ingeniously acquired by distribution company Factory 25 and has started screening in the US (details below). For a debut feature, Kerr has given us realism with the rug pulled out from under us, and rich with subtext too elaborate to fully explore in a review.
Set at the dawn of Covid, FAMILY PORTRAIT follows a sprawling family on a morning when they have planned a group picture. After the mother disappears, Katy (Deragh Campbell) becomes increasingly anxious to find her and take the picture, but the rest of the family appears to resist any attempt to gather. A simple setup, but a not so simple film.
It is impressive that FAMILY PORTRAIT only takes place over a few hours and uses such intense verisimilitude yet can radiate such sharp existential anxiety. That fly-on-the-wall feeling ruptures more and more each time Katy asks where their mom is, and someone brushes her off. A shrug of the shoulders instead of a cinematic search party churns uncomfortably within us. Realism becomes a palpable hyper-reality where the family is suspended in time, forever trying to take the perfect family portrait.
I’m sure that, for some, family gatherings can feel like purgatory. With its uncertain dynamics of time and space, FAMILY PORTRAIT heightens the havoc of organising a group of people running on completely different wavelengths. Also, we can constantly hear all the background noise, even the wind outside, this never lets the audience take a minute to themselves, and the film starts its descent into something dreadful we cannot ignore but cannot explain.
Genre-wise, FAMILY PORTRAIT cannot be boxed neatly into a family “drama”. It feels more like watching a performance piece, an unfolding artwork. It may not have fit into Fear Forever’s usual genre coverage if it were not for the building dread; this constant sense that something is “off”…or wait, is it? It is a film you experience rather than just watch. FAMILY PORTRAIT languidly falls into a realm of the uncanny with just the right pacing so as to slowly dawn on us as well.
The film features intriguing subtle performances, and lead Deragh Campbell (Possessor) pulls us along behind her as she weaves through family members with increasing frustration. She is key to the immersion. It feels like she is dragging us by the arm, and we bounce off family members.
When a film leaves you unsure, you rate it based on its ability to deliver meaning, maybe there were plot holes or a big event that was given no exposition. When FAMILY PORTAIT leaves you unsure, you want to embrace it: see it again, interpret things differently, unfold everlasting loops, everlasting questions. For this, I am giving it a high rating.
FAMILY PORTRAIT Opened at Metrograph Theater in NYC and screens there until July 4. The film will also screen at Gene Siskel Film Center, Chicago, from July 12-18 and at Now Instant, Los Angeles, on July 19 and 20. It will make its US Streaming Premiere Exclusively on Metrograph at Home on July 5.
“It is a film you experience rather than just watch. FAMILY PORTRAIT languidly falls into a realm of the uncanny with just the right pacing so as to slowly dawn on us as well.”
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