Cameron Dawson Gray had been attached to Benjamin Finkel‘s first long feature since she was nine, but the Pandemic delayed production. Even so, the wait was worthwhile because Gray’s performance is devastating and nuanced beyond her years. In Family, the young actor portrays a lonely 11-year-old named Johanna. The homeschooled girl has moved to a new house with her parents on account of her father (Ben Chaplin); he’s had cancer for most of Johanna’s childhood. And as his case worsens, so does Johanna’s wellbeing. Strange incidents occur on the regular (her dog disappears into thin air, she finds broken glass in her sandwich), yet no one believes her. Not her estranged grandfather (Allan Corduner), and especially not her stressed-out mother (Ruth Wilson). Johanna eventually believes the uncanny force in her home — one originating inside an egg-shaped birdhouse — is responsible for her father’s illness and everything else gone wrong in her life.
Set around 2002, Finkel’s film emulates not only the time period in of itself but also the once-ubiquitous cinemascape. The use of both natural and stylistic lighting — dark scenes don’t read as almost pitch black — as well as a diversity in angles make for a gratifying visual journey. Given the filmmaker’s relative newness, Family‘s artistic outcome is remarkable. There are indeed splotches of Ari Aster and Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s oeuvre on Finkel’s palette, but he is not merely mimicking.
As it should, Family largely takes place in the main character’s house. Johanna manages to break free from time to time; she finds solace in a welcomingly unexceptional neighbor boy. Yet, as is often the case with formative trauma, all roads lead back to home. Finkel maintains that sense of domestic dread even as the film’s environment becomes redundant and suffocating. The tangible threats — including a practically-accomplished, not to mention nightmarish reimagining of the family dog, and a featureless being whose sheer presence muddies the genre label — add to the overall psychological terror.
Communicating a young person’s panic on screen can be tricky and, at times, unconvincing, but Cameron Dawson Gray aims high and soars. Her film résumé is off to a stupendous start. The other lead performance, Ruth Wilson’s matriarchal role, is comparatively more controlled and rationed. Adults have, unfortunately, learned to curb their gut reactions and anguish, and Wilson depicts her character’s coming-from-all-sides breakdown with the weight it both requires and deserves. Ben Chaplin takes a backseat to the women, however, at least one scene of his will certainly catch the audience off guard.
Family is not an easy film to watch primarily because it is based on the director and writer’s own lived life experience. So this is not another soulless and unsubstantiated offering of metaphorical and grief horror. Finkel put to paper all the pain of growing up with a sick parent, and the material translates to screen rather beautifully. The heart-wrenching story is equal parts plausible and weird to ensure a memorable viewing.
The debut from Benjamin Finkel hits all the right notes regarding the overwhelming fear and grief within an increasingly unstable home. Family doesn’t quite break new ground subject-wise, yet the execution is powerful.
Family premiered at South by Southwest 2024.
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