‘Love the Coopers’ latest entry in dysfunctional family movies

The dysfunctional family movie is a genre unto itself, told and retold countless times.

Why do we love them so much? Is it because every family is a dysfunctional one, to some degree? That the families on screen make us feel better about our own? (Aunt Edna doesn’t seem so bad now, does she?)

“Love the Coopers” opens on Friday, and it looks to include a lot of the same ingredients found in the typical dysfunctional family flick. Parent with a secret? Check. Black-sheep child? Check. Sibling rivalry? Check. Starry ensemble cast? Check, check and check! (Diane Keaton, John Goodman, Ed Helms, Marisa Tomei, Alan Arkin, Amanda Seyfried and June Squibb star.)

The film joins the ranks of some great dysfunctional family movies. Here’s a look:

▪  “The Godfather” (1972) – C’mon, you have to include this! It’s the, well, godfather of all dysfunctional family movies, made even more dysfunctional because this is a Mafia family, led by Don Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando, in his Oscar-winning performance). Sure, the children of the Don have disagreements like any other family, but when they back-stab each other, they back-stab each other, literally. And make offers that can’t be refused.

▪  “American Beauty” (1999) – Let’s see here, we got a father (Kevin Spacey, also in an Oscar-winning role) who has the hots for his teenage daughter’s best friend, a daughter who loathes her mother (Annette Bening) and said mother who is cheating on said husband. Nothing wrong with that equation! Except that this family lives next to a bigoted, closeted man with a penchant for guns and Nazi plates. When a drug dealer is the hero of the film, there has to be a sliding scale.

▪  “The Fighter” (2010) – This family is a doozy, and Micky “Irish” Ward tries desperately to control it when he finally gets a shot that could advance his flailing boxing career. Christian Bale and Melissa Leo won Oscars as his loud-mouthed brother and mother, and Amy Adams is equally brilliant as his spitfire girlfriend, but Mark Wahlberg is every bit as impressive as Micky. He’s the center of the chaotic storm, only his shouting is internal – and it’s louder than anyone around him.

▪  “The Royal Tenenbaums” (2001) – Wes Anderson’s quirky tale explores the lives of three grown prodigy siblings (Gwyneth Paltrow, Ben Stiller, Luke Wilson) who must come to terms with their lives and each other when their estranged father (Gene Hackman) informs their mother (Angelica Huston) that he is terminally ill. This at first seems like just another odd comedy from Anderson in his now-signature style, but there’s more going on here than what we see on the surface, beautifully realized by the stellar cast.

▪  “Ordinary People” (1980) – From the terrible mother department comes Mary Tyler Moore’s Beth, who makes Joan Crawford’s “Mommie Dearest” look like a saint. Still distraught over the loss of her obviously favorite son, Beth refuses to forgive her other, guilt-ridden son, Conrad (Timothy Hutton, in his Oscar-winning performance). We slowly realize that this is a family dynamic beyond repair, and sometimes, sadly, tragically, that’s for the better.

▪  “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?” (1993) – Johnny Depp is quietly brilliant as Gilbert, the center of a Midwest family burdened with a house-bound obese mother and a mentally disabled younger brother (an astonishing Leonardo DiCaprio). Depp makes us feel the weight that is ever-crushing down on Gilbert, and speaks volumes with his eyes. The film is heartbreaking and sweetly tender, with a clear message: No life is small, however small we may feel.

▪  “Little Miss Sunshine” (2006) – A family that includes a suicidal uncle (Steve Carell), a son who has taken a vow of silence and a drug-addicted grandpa (Alan Arkin, in his Oscar-winning role) hit the road in their yellow VW bus to get the young daughter, Olive (Abigail Breslin), to a beauty pageant. Sounds innocent enough, except that for the talent portion of the contest, Olive performs a dance routine that Grandpa learned in a strip club. Nothing dysfunctional there!

This story was originally published November 8, 2015 at 10:59 AM with the headline "‘Love the Coopers’ latest entry in dysfunctional family movies."