Family Plot (1976)
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Family Plot Movie Review
Family Plot is a 1976 thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Karen Black and Bruce Dern among others. It’s a pretty solid, but mostly incredibly disappointing movie.
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“When a guy like me gets kidnapped by a woman,
he wants her to be twenty-five“
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It follows two couples – one a “fake” psychic and her cab driving boyfriend, the other a pair of professional thieves and kidnappers. Their lives come into conflict because of a search for a missing heir. Although that sounds very strong on paper, it isn’t in execution as it left a lot to be desired and it just felt unprofessional throughout.
Yes, this is a rare weaker effort from Hitchcock, the one which is still solid, but highly disappointing overall. The movie supposedly is a comedy, but I never laughed personally. Yes, that breaking the fourth wall ending is very memorable and excellent, but overall the film only has a couple of comedic moments here and there. It’s otherwise your regular thriller,
Surprisingly for a 1970s film, it doesn’t really contain any violence or nudity which worked well for me, but it did somewhat lead to a less dangerous and/or suspenseful movie. Yes, the film is surprisingly devoid of suspense, well, except for that absolutely amazing car drive sequence where the car malfunctions and the pair struggles to stay on the road. That was fantastic for sure.
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But otherwise, the suspense is lacking and the thriller elements aren’t particularly strong. The storytelling is overall rather weak and the film is overly convoluted for the type of fun flick that it wants to be. It still is entertaining and at times exceptional, but mostly just a middling affair that would be excellent for many directors out there, but for an amazing talent such as Hitch, it’s beneath him if I am to be honest.
William Devane is quite good, but of course Karen Black is one of the standouts. Her performance not so much as she struggled in some scenes for sure, but just visually speaking, she is very cool. The black look with the jacket, the glasses and the gun makes for one very interesting choice for the director and it’s easy to see why he chose to put her in promotional posters as she does look menacing and like she means business. They never utilized her character as much as they ought to.
But Barbara Harris as Blanche Tyler is so wonderful and highly likable. Bruce Dern is also quite good and it was interesting seeing him in a Hitchcock film. Both gave solid performances, but particularly their relationship and fun dynamics made them one very strong, highly endearing couple. They are actually the better couple in the film.
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Family Plot is so well shot in wonderful Technicolor. It features some terrific camera angles and although the film is convoluted in plot, it still features the usually fantastic, meticulous attention to detail from Hitchcock. This was his last movie and he did a fine job. It is one of my less favorite of his movies, but still a solid one overall. John Williams actually composed the movie and it’s interesting that these two giants collaborated once, but unfortunately the score itself is one of the composer’s weakest in my opinion.
Family Plot features visually memorable Karen Black plus Barbara Harris and Bruce Dern are such a fun, likable couple. It’s well shot and it features a couple of terrific scenes such as the fun breaking the fourth wall ending and the car scene is thrilling. But overall, it’s just a solid, but far from great Hitchcock film which is overly convoluted in plot and never as fun or as funny as it should have been.
