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The Family Tree

Play trailer Poster for The Family Tree R 2011 1h 35m Comedy Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
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10% Tomatometer 21 Reviews 24% Popcornmeter 500+ Ratings
An unusual accident leaves an Ohio woman (Hope Davis) with amnesia, leading to a second chance at happiness for herself and her family.
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The Family Tree

Critics Reviews

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Elizabeth Weitzman New York Daily News 08/26/2011
2/5
To judge from the talent she drew for her shaky debut, Vivi Friedman must either be very well connected or an awfully smooth talker. Go to Full Review
Sara Stewart New York Post 08/26/2011
1/4
"Mad Men" devotees may show up for Christina Hendricks, who plays Mulroney's buxom secretary. Quite the acting stretch. Go to Full Review
Gary Goldstein Los Angeles Times 08/25/2011
2/5
Friedman's inability to successfully reconcile the film's duality undercuts an eclectic cast gamely committed to Mark Lisson's thematically ambitious, if scattered, script. Go to Full Review
Richard Propes TheIndependentCritic.com 09/07/2020
2.5/4.0
Warrants consideration on the basis of Hope Davis's strong performance. Go to Full Review
Sean Kernan We Got This Covered 03/01/2013
8/10
The Family Tree is a surprisingly funny dysfunctional family comedy that manages to entertain throughout. Go to Full Review
David Nusair Reel Film Reviews 11/23/2011
1/4
...a misguided and thoroughly obnoxious piece of work that wears out its welcome almost immediately. Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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09/19/2020 So much wasted potential. I should have known that when in the opening credits, the theme song title is an F word (and is repeated over and over and over) and is accompanied by nudity that I was going to hate this, but something possessed me to keep watching. I like Dermot Mulroney but even that wasn't nearly enough. The Family Tree is nothing at all like the description except for the wife being left with a case of mild amnesia. It does have some funny moments, but mostly this movie is a lot of sexual humor and situations, swearing, nudity and did I mention, horrible? I saw and felt absolutely no heartwarming attributes at all and the more I watched, the worse it became. I almost turned it off, but by that time I was about 75% finished and figured that i might as well waste the rest of my time by finishing it. Ugh... It's too bad really because I was on a roll watching movies that I expected to be bad but turned out to be good. This one isn't bad, actually. Bad would have been a major improvement. See more georgan g 03/19/2020 Just not all that great. Didn't hate it. Seen much worse. See more 09/28/2013 OK, all critics look hating it. I found it kinda funny however. A comedy form of "American Beauty". See more 12/03/2012 The Family Tree is a movie that is such a formulaic crapfest it doesn't even deserve for me to take time out of my schedule to write-up this review of it as I already WASTED an hour and a half of my time trying to appreciate some aspect of it (Christina Hendricks is in it for all of 3 minutes in the first twelve and gone for the remainder). I couldn't find anything else here ... and I rarely say I "wasted" my time when talking about movies (I willingly watched the sequel to Garfield to review it for friends and family); but this IS time wasted. The movie takes so many swipes and swings at many hot-button topics (religion, sexuality, adultery and marriage) that it is all muddled and ridiculous. So much is thrown at this family of wretched individuals that the audience cannot even keep all of the stupid storylines straight -- none of it is reasonable or plausible. This might be one for those who want to "go back" to a nostalgic past of glory ... and this movie is everything that is wrong with that mindset. See more 11/23/2012 Humorous and character rich. Enjoy! See more Frances H 10/20/2012 The Family Tree is a good example of why I don't believe in allowing critics to decide which movies I decide which movies I will watch. If I judged on the basis of the reviews I read here, I wouldn't have viewed this one, and on a dark comedy level, I found it very amusing--far more so than the acclaimed Tree of Life, which took the same subject seriously. While the latter film had beautiful cinematography and some lovely lyric moments, it was also confusing and often boringly slow paced, whereas the former movie was entertaining throughout. And after all, aren't films supposed to be a form of entertainment? See more Read all reviews
The Family Tree

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Movie Info

Synopsis An unusual accident leaves an Ohio woman (Hope Davis) with amnesia, leading to a second chance at happiness for herself and her family.
Director
Vivi Friedman
Producer
Allan Jones, J. Todd Harris, Mark Lisson, Kathy Weiss
Screenwriter
Mark Lisson
Distributor
Entertainment One
Production Co
Driving Lessons
Rating
R (Some Violence|Drug Use|Sexual Content|Pervasive Language)
Genre
Comedy, Drama
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Aug 26, 2011, Limited
Release Date (Streaming)
May 21, 2012
Box Office (Gross USA)
$3.7K
Runtime
1h 35m
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