Every family has that one relative that they would prefer wouldn’t call around. And there’s nothing worse than them arriving when you’re having a Sunday family dinner. Especially if that person is out to take everything from them. Writer/director Caden Douglas takes the simple concept and ratchets the familial horrors to an absurd degree.
Overbearing mother of the Jennings family, Joy (Mindy Cohn), and father, Jerry (Enrico Colantoni), are having their weekly dinner with their son, Jim (Iain Stewart), and daughter, Jolene (Melanie Leishman). Things are strained as it is, but when Jerry’s brother Frank (Juan Chioran) turns up and reveals a secret, the parents keep putting the night into deadly turmoil.
Surprises and murder are the order of the day as the evening swings from an unbearably awkward family dinner to a farce level (a pie to the face has never worked so perfectly). Familiar family relationship behaviours (if overly exaggerated) come under the spotlight in this funny, gory romp. Each member has something to hide, and the razor-sharp dialogue keeps things zipping along, and the unorthodox method of bonding might be messy but seems to do the job. The cast is superb, and they are aided by cameos from Mean Girl’s Sharron Mathews, whose lost dog causes more trouble for the Jennings, Jim’s husband Pete (Izad Etemadi), and a police officer (Matthew G. Brown). Naturally, they all add an extra strain to the unfortunate predicament.
Special mention must go to the often discordant score by Adrian Ellis and Walker Grimshaw. It adds another level of anxiety to the beautifully shot visuals. However dysfunctional, the family at the heart of Caden Douglas’s movie come together through honesty and real love. A lesson to us all… just without the murder.
MOTHER FATHER SISTER BROTHER FRANK is available to rent and buy digitally now.
