A minor, predictable feature that nevertheless remains engaging enough as the tale unfolds.
The long working hours of husband/father trope is explored as Dane Jenson (Gerard Butler – 300, Greenland) prioritises his high-pressure career over time spent with wife Elise (Gretchen Mol – Manchester by the Sea, TV’s Boardwalk Empire) and three kids. With the boss (Willem Dafoe – The Florida Project, The Lighthouse) looking to name his successor in the dog-eat-dog world of headhunting, Jenson finds himself in competition with Alison Brie (The Post, TV’s Mad Men). But when eldest son Ryan (Maxwell Jenkins – TV’s Lost in Space, Reacher) is taken ill with a life threatening disease, Jenson is forced to reassess.
With the city of Chicago an integral character within director Mark Williams’ (Honest Thief, Blacklight) slick, pull-on-the-heartstrings feature, A Family Man is undemanding hokum – but eminently watchable, if immediately forgettable.
Rating: 48%
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