FAMILY LAW — ** 1/2 — Daniel Hendler, Arturo Goetz, Julieta Diaz; in Spanish, with English subtitles; not rated, probable R (profanity, vulgarity, brief sex, brief partial nudity).
"Family Law" rushes so quickly through some fairly major plot points that at times it feels like a CliffsNotes version of a movie.
That's probably because Argentinian filmmaker Daniel Burman has so much material to cover in so little time. This comedy-drama runs 100 minutes but is drastically overplotted and overwritten and could have used some editing to make it a tighter, more modest character piece.
Still, the performances are strong and a few things do click here and there.
The film's title refers to the law practice of Bernardo Perlman (Arturo Goetz), a veteran Argentine lawyer who is hoping his son Ariel (Daniel Hendler) will eventually take over. But Ariel is busy teaching law as much as he is practicing it. That's where he meets Sandra (Julieta Diaz), a Pilates instructor he romances and eventually marries.
The two have a son, Gaston (played by the filmmaker's son, Eloy Burman), and fatherhood causes the rather emotionally reserved Ariel to reflect on the differences and similarities between himself and his own father.
Though that recap might make the plot seem clear-cut and simple, there's a lot more to it than that. In fact, it's so full of melodramatic developments that at times Hendler is required to do voice-over narrations to move the story along. (Fortunately, it's not as clunky and obnoxious as so many voice-overs tend to be.)
And both Goetz and Hendler are very believable as the semi-estranged father-son duo. But it would have been nice to spend a little more time with Goetz's character, as he is the more interesting of the two.
"Family Law" is not rated but would probably receive an R for strong sexual language (profanity, slang and other suggestive talk), a brief sex scene, as well as other simulated sexual contact, and brief partial female nudity. Running time: 102 minutes.
E-mail: jeff@desnews.com