On October 23, on the Netflix platform came out is an adventure fantasy comedy «Family Pack», the plot of which is based on the card game «The Werewolves of Millers Hollow» created by the Frenchmen Philippe de Pallier and Hervé Marley, which, in turn, is based on the more famous in Ukraine «Mafia». In the review below, we will tell you how things are in the medieval village inhabited by werewolves and whether it makes sense for viewers to join this fantastic time travel.
Genre adventure fantasy, comedy
Director François Husan
Starring Frank Dubosc, Jean Reno, Suzanne Clement, Lisa Do Couto Teixeira, Raphaël Romand, Alizée Coney, Gregory Fitoussi, Jonathan Lambert, Bruno Gueri
Premiere Netflix
Year of issue 2024
Website IMDb
One day, a French family decides to play an old card game that was lying around in their grandfather’s attic. However, the competitive spirit almost immediately fizzles out: the youngest daughter thinks more about a hearty meal, the son — about his own hairstyle, the eldest is more interested in streaming on social media, and the grandfather has dementia. But somehow, the game magically overturns all this not-so-cohesive society, which would be a nightmare of Dominic Toretto, to a medieval village where real werewolves are active after sunset.
As it turns out, the family is caught in the middle of the game. So now they have to not only win by finding and destroying all the werewolves, but also face harsh medieval customs.
Looking at the brief description of such a simple plot, it is not difficult to conclude that «Family Pack» — is a kind of «Jumanji» of the French variety mixed with the stories about time travel, in particular, to the distant past, that we are familiar with.
That is, the film by François Husan, who can be seen in the writing team of the hit «Lupin» on the same Netflix, is a priori secondary at the stage of conception. And this is despite the fact that the role-playing element of «The Werewolves of Millers Hollow» itself is minimal here and has a purely formal function, which manifests itself in the superheroic abilities of each of the characters.
And even those are used criminally rarely. For example, there is a curly haired guy with the Mystic ability from «X-Men», or a natural Invisible Girl from «Fantastic Four». And at least his grandfather’s dementia has disappeared.
The adventures associated with the characters’ newly acquired superpowers and medieval setting seem to fade into the background. In the first place, you get a story about the gloomy Middle Ages, where educational speeches about gender equality are given or prominent gay artists live. And the local crowd of onlookers is having a blast at a real rock concert because it’s clearly more interesting than staring at another summary execution in the central square. In short, we are looking at the most progressive medieval village in every sense.
We have to understand that there is nothing wrong with social commentary itself, but if a film has nothing else to offer besides it, then questions arise.
It’s unlikely that anyone will be really fascinated by the local confrontation with the werewolves. First of all, it’s hard to call it a confrontation, maybe only in the finale. Secondly, they look strange, and the little werewolf looks more like Chewbacca from «Star Wars».
It’s not the first time that the main star of this show, Jean Reno, has done some cool time travel: he previously traveled from 12th-century France to 1992 in «Les Visiteurs», and then performed a similar stunt in two more sequels. The difference is that this time the journey is in the opposite direction, i.e. from the present to the ancient past. In «Family Pack» Renaud is limited to a few funny lines and is not memorable. And there’s not much else to say about the other performers, except that Frank Dubosc in some respects resembles James Gunn a bit.
In general, the adventures offered by the movie do not look exciting and funny enough to spend time on. Obviously, the movie is intended for family leisure, but this function is much better served by «Wild Robot», which is still relevant at the box office. As for «Family Pack», the result is obvious: «werewolves wake up — viewer falls asleep».
