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‘Family Portrait’ Review: Formally Astute Ensemble Piece Extracts the Unsettling Essence of a Wealthy Clan
'Family Portrait,' Lucy Kerr’s concise examination of affluent domesticity, starts as a deceivingly commonplace collection of social exchanges.
But while free-floating and airy in its construction, the film’s deceiving familiarity slowly erodes, morphing into an unsettling, formally astute brain-tickler observing the placid domesticity of an affluent Texas family in their natural habitat. One scene sees Olek (Chris Galust), Katy’s Polish boyfriend, irate at Americans’ infamous lack of basic world geography knowledge or other countries’ cultures in general, exemplified by her family’s remarks. Still, more obvious wealth signifiers abound, including their employment of Maria (Vanessa Cedotal), their housekeeper, who presumably works for them wherever they live the rest of the year, and Frank (Ed Hattaway), the handyman in charge of taking care of this vacation home.
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