"There was a time when I had it all. People would ask me, 'What was it like, being untouchable?'" says Robert De Niro over the strains of "Can't You Hear Me Knocking?" in the new trailer for "The Family." "The question they really should have asked was, 'What happens when it's all over?'"
Well, "The Family," a mob comedy that actually looks pretty great. Executive produced by Martin Scorsese and directed by Luc Besson, "The Family" (previously known as "Malavita," the title of the novel on which its based), stars De Niro as a Giovanni Manzoni, a former mobster turned federal informant who gets moved to France with his family by the Witness Protection Program. (The feds are embodied here by Tommy Lee Jones, doing his Tommy Lee Jones thing.) Culture clashes ensue, as do further attempts on the life of Manzoni, his wife (Michelle Pfeiffer) and kids ("Glee" star Dianna Agron and John D'Leo).
"The Family" makes good on the pairing of Scorsese and Besson, combing mob hijinks with wild action, some black comedy and a dynamite cast. (Pfeiffer, doing her "Married to the Mob" schtick is a particular hoot; Agron, as the daughter, acquits herself nicely with a tennis racket.) For De Niro, "The Family" appears on first trailer to be another step forward on the comeback trail in the wake of his Oscar nomination for "Silver Linings Playbook." He's in Jimmy Conway mode here, and that's a good thing.
Watch the trailer for "The Family" above. The film is out on Sept. 20.
