Title: Family Jewels – Also Known As – Barry Munday
Starring: Patrick Wilson, Judy Greer, Chloë Sevigny
Director: Chris D'Arienzo
Screenplay: Chris D'Arienzo
Here’s a fun little Indie film for you. Well actually for all I know it has a massive budget, but it feels like an Indie film and that’s the important thing.
Barry Munday (Patrick Wilson) is a bit of a pornography fanatic. He works is a dead-end job and he is basically a bit of a loser. He meets a young girl at the cinema. She is probably underage, but even if she is not, she is still too young for Barry to be interested in. And while he is clearly a bit nervous of having a conversation with her (that she starts) she is clearly keen in talking to him…. and more.
That is until her Dad turns up and thing get a bit nasty, for Barry at least. Without even asking any questions the father hits Barry…. with….of all the strange things that you might have about your person at a cinema….a trumpet…in the one certain place a man really doesn’t want to be hit. Barry goes off to hospital where both of his testicles are removed due to trauma.
The next thing to happen to Barry that is a bit strange is that he is accused of having fathered a child (before the incident) by a woman called Ginger (Judy Greer). But he has no memory of having had sex with Ginger or even meeting her to be honest. And this is where the plot became slightly irritating…. I don’t like being in the dark, but in the dark we are for the next hour wondering if Barry is really the father or not.
Patrick Wilson has had a hard time in films….has anyone seen Hard Candy? He lost his testicles in that when a young Ellen Page (Juno) chopped them off. Mind you he did deserve it that time! I enjoyed seeing Judy Greer in a slightly different role here. She is normally playing a promiscuous beauty although here she plays a far less sexual, and slightly less attractive woman….she retains her normal character trait of being extremely grumpy though.
It’s a strange film. Funny, quirky and a decent script but I didn’t even hear about it turning up at the cinema. It might be a straight-to-DVD release but with fairly impressive cast, despite a first time director, I imagine this would have at least been in cinemas for a few weeks. Maybe it’s the title…. _Family Jewels_… not a great title….that might make people thing it was something different. This is presumably why it’s also being released under the alternative title of _Barry Munday_. But that’s really no better. That tells the potential viewer even less about what the film is about. There was once a Jerry Lee Lewis film by the same name and _Family Jewels_ as a film name for me sounds more like a slap stick out-and-out comedy and this film is not that. It’s a little more thoughtful and well written and acted.
