Little Men (PG). Director: Ira Sachs. Starring: Greg Kinnear, Jennifer Ehle, Paulina García, Theo Taplitz, Michael Barbieri. 85 minutes. | The Family Fang (M). Director: Jason Bateman. Starring: Nicole Kidman, Jason Bateman, Christopher Walken, Kathryn Hahn, Maryann Plunkett, Jason Butler Harner. 106 minutes
In his column for Eureka Street this week, Barry Gittins notes the often fraught nature of family relationships, which can be highlighted painfully at Christmas. Quoting Pope John XXIII, who once said, 'Mankind is a great, an immense family', Gittins says this is 'a big ask that carries a price'. 'The broken or breaking relationships we've limped with throughout the year receive additional stress,' he adds, 'as relatives crashing at your place, like the proverbial fish, go off in three days.'
It's true families can be sites of great love and nourishment, and also of pain and trauma — often, all of these things, to varying degrees. Two recent American films explore these dynamics, and the quiet or profound effects the behaviour of some members in a family unit can have on others in it. Little Men, by New York based auteur Sachs, makes its case with gentleness and understatement. The Family Fang, by actor turned director Bateman, revels in dark comedy and angst.
Little Men centres on 13-year-old Jake (Taplitz), who, after the death of his grandfather Max, moves with his actor father Brian (Kinnear) and therapist mother Kathy (Ehle) into the old man's Brooklyn apartment. Max had leased out the ground floor of the building to Leonor (García), who runs a dress shop out of it. Jake, quietly spoken, thoughtful, an aspiring artist, quickly befriends Leonor's gregarious son Tony (Barbieri). The two boys become virtually inseparable.
But there are tensions here that are beyond the ken or caring of young boys. It is hinted at in the way a friend of Leonor's refers to Jake as 'the grandson'; he is viewed by these adults in relation to a larger picture of which he is not aware. Gradually it emerges that while Max had allowed Leonor to rent the space cheaply, Brian, whose career is struggling, and Kathy, who is supporting the family singlehandedly, are demanding a much higher rate, which she can't afford.
Jake and Tony are happily ignorant of this, their friendship tranquil and sincere. We see them skating in Brooklyn to the beat of Dickon Hinchliffe's bittersweet score. They play videogames, and fantasise about Tony's father reuniting with his