The Family Fang Movie (2015)

As a disgruntled writer trying to finish his second novel, Baxter (Jason Bateman) takes a quick job to write a piece about a group of guys and their custom-made potato-launchers. In the process, he gets hit in the head with a potato in a William Tell-type incident and ends up in the hospital. Against Baxter's wishes, his parents and sister arrive to take him back to the family home to recover. His sister, Annie (Nicole Kidman), jumps at the opportunity to put her struggling acting career on hold. It seems like a caring family so far, so where's the conflict?

In childhood, of course. We get flashbacks from the children's youth, when their parents used Annie and Baxter in their public performance art pieces. In one, they all dress up in Christmas sweaters to have a family photo taken at the mall. Just before the photographer snaps his shot, all four Fangs smile and reveal vampire teeth while fake blood dribbles down their chins.

But 30-plus years is a long time, and the now older Caleb and Camille Fang (Christopher Walken and Maryann Plunkett) feel hurt by their children's lack of respect for their art. They try to perform another piece in public with the adult Fang children, but it goes terribly wrong, and Caleb and Camille hit the road together for a long weekend, leaving Annie and Baxter alone.

When the parents are reported missing a few days later, Annie thinks it's all a prank, one final work of great art. Baxter considers the alternative: what if they're really dead? Unable to accept Baxter's logic, Annie convinces him to help her track their parents down and reveal the hoax to the local police.

There is a great sadness behind this comedy, and the viewer is often left wondering how the parents portrayed could be so self-centered, controlling, and ultimately oblivious to their own children's well-being. The quickly evolving relationship between Annie and Baxter makes the film interesting throughout, but more light-hearted moments would have been welcome. The Family Fang is not full of laughs (as many of Bateman's previous films are), but it does have something else to offer: a story about siblings who are raised by parents that don't understand them. And who can't relate to that?