‘The Clan’ Review: Disturbed Kidnapping for the Whole Family

'The Clan'

Movie Rating:

4

A peculiar domestic crime thriller laced with political allegory and morbid wit that’s also somehow based on a true story, Pablo Trapero’s ‘The Clan’ is absolutely fascinating and well worth seeking out for anyone who has a taste for darkness. Though clearly influenced by many great crime films by such luminaries as Martin Scorsese or the Coen brothers, Trapero has found a specific tale so unique that it’s hard to think of an honest equivalent.

‘The Clan’ is a rather brilliant and nasty little movie that serves up unconventional thrills and themes in a stylishly constructed package. Along with last year’s equally impressive ‘Wild Tales‘, it suggests that a little wave of twisted genre films is unexpectedly emerging from Argentina at the moment.

The clan in question is a rather unique suburban family in 1980s Argentina. The father, Arquimedes Puccio (Guillermo Francella), once made people disappear for a former corrupt government. Now that his services are no longer required by the state, he’s found a new way to make a living. He kidnaps upper middle class neighbors and holds them for ransom. It’s a family business of sorts. Arquimedes uses his son Alejandro (Peter Lanzani) to help round up his victims. Then he keeps them tied up in his home where his wife and her family prepare meals for the kidnapped. Meanwhile, the younger children do their homework while ignoring the muffled screams in nearby rooms.

Although creepy, it kind of works for the family… for a while. Alejandro in particular is able to transfer his share of the cash into a boating business and a happy life in the community. Obviously, however, this scheme can’t last. Bodies start to pile up when ransoms aren’t met. One son flees the country to avoid the family business, and Alejandro plots an escape with his girlfriend, even if he can’t quite face disappointing his father.

Yeah, this is twisted stuff to be sure. Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of Trapero’s approach to the material is how casually the director presents it. This is one of those “banality of evil” tales and Arquimedes Puccio is a particularly terrifying edition of that type. He’s quietly reserved at all times, perhaps especially during his most violent moments. Trapero follows suit as a director, using long tracking shots to segue from domestic family dinners to disturbing kidnapping details within same household. The ’80s setting provides plenty of campy production design, while period rock music montages highlight the disparity between this family’s values and their bullet-strewn business through rhythmic music video-style editing. There film has an element of show-off directing that would feel out of place were the story not so surreal that it practically demands this approach.

While a fairly broad ensemble of characters flow throughout the film, the drama is essentially a two-hander between father and son. The guilt of the household’s women is kept deliberately vague. It’s unclear exactly how much the wife and daughters know, and any of their involvement is only complicit. That feels like part of the political allegory in play, with the father/son duo set up as deliberate generational representatives of an era before and after a corrupt dictatorship. The son benefits from the cruelty of his father and, while disgusted by his actions, allows himself to be part of it for the rewards. The women pretend it isn’t happening to accept the comfortable lives they get from the tragedies.

The story is clearly allegorical of the Dirty War era, but thankfully the central duo aren’t merely symbols. They’re flesh and blood characters brilliantly performed by Guillermo Francella (as a terrifyingly casual figure of evil who can’t live any other way) and Peter Lanzani (as a guilt-ridden benefactor struggling to grow a conscience in a family without one). No matter how stylishly arch or richly symbolic the film becomes, the actors ground the material perfectly so that we never forget that these were somehow real people.

Trapero carefully plays with his tone throughout, mixing in liberal doses of cheeky black comedy that only enhance the shocks when they arrive rather than lighten them. Eventually, the story builds toward one of the most jaw-dropping left turn endings to arrive in quite some time. It’s a blindsiding moment that would be almost impossible to fictionalize. The fact that it actually happened only deepens the gut-punch effectiveness of the piece as it sends viewers stumbling out of the theater wondering what the hell they just watched.

‘The Clan’ might ultimately be yet another darkly comic crime thriller – a genre that’s not exactly lacking for new entries. However, it works so well in such richly unexpected and culturally specific ways that it manages to reinvent that genre’s wheel in its own small manner. It’s a pleasant surprise. There hasn’t been a movie of this ilk that worked so well in far too long. If nothing else, it demands to be seen purely for the finale, which leave have you discussing the film whether you enjoyed the build-up or not.

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