In the Family

I respect the fact that many people really liked the movie, but we walked out after 30 minutes. The sound was garbled and Patrick Wang was just not a strong-enough actor to carry this film. The conviction with which he delivered the opening lines was about as believable as a student actor in a project for a CEGEP film course. I have listened to him interviewed in real life and he has a good speaking voice, but he portrays a Chinese fellow speaking with a southern Tennessee drawl which was there sometimes and sometimes not and it was just bizarre. He directed, wrote and starred in this movie which is his first full-length feature. I read that it was initially panned by many of the bigger film festivals, - perhaps because he was too close to the project to be objective about his own performance? My spouse and I are a gay couple and we were looking forward to seeing this film, but for us it really was a let-down. The dialog was stilted and it felt too much like," you say your line, then I'll say mine," rather than actors reacting and building on each others' performance.