The Price of Family
Language, drinking, iffy behavior in Italian family comedy.
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The Price of Family
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A Lot or a Little?
The parents' guide to what's in this movie.
What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that The Price of Family (Natale a tutti i costi) is an Italian comedy about parents willing to do anything to keep their grown children close. The film has significant language, some drinking and smoking, and questionable behavior from all characters. Parents and kids lie to each other, and people show themselves to be greedy and self-interested. Couples kiss and adults discuss sex. Characters joke about a "limp d--k" and a picture that looks like "an ad for a Colombian brothel." A man's teeth get knocked out repeatedly by accidental hits to the face. Another man threatens to cut someone's balls off if his car is damaged, and a company boss is a bully. Adults smoke cigarettes and drink wine and beer, sometimes to excess. Language in the English subtitles includes "f--k," "s--t," "bulls--t," "damn," "goddamn," "hell," "bitch," "a--hole," "ass," "d--khead," "moron," and "bastard."
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What's the Story?
Anna (Angela Finocchiaro) and Carlo (Christian De Sica) are an aging couple whose grown children have recently moved out of the house at the start of THE PRICE OF FAMILY. Anna especially misses her kids, Alessandra (Dharma Mangia Woods) and Emilio (Claudio Colica), and is struggling with her empty nest. The young adults want to live their own lives and see their parents' attempts at connecting as annoying meddling. Deciding to take matters into their own hands, Anna and Carlo invent the falsehood that they have just inherited 6 million Euros from a relative. As expected, the ruse brings Alessandra and Emilio rushing back into their arms -- for all the wrong reasons. The difficulty now will be getting out of the lie without ruining their relationships.
Is It Any Good?
This uneven concept comedy has highs and lows, but there are enough laughable moments and relatable themes to make it an entertaining watch. The highs in The Price of Family (an equally punny title as the Italian original, which translates roughly to "Christmas at All Costs") come at the hands of veteran actors De Sica and Finocchiaro. Their increasingly ridiculous antics as Mom and Dad, and his eye-rolling resignation at his fate, bring the laughs.
Price is like Schitt's Creek in reverse, where the ruse of inheriting wealth rather than losing it brings a family closer together. Only, in establishing the themes of loving your family regardless of personal gain and the ways money can complicate relationships, Price sometimes pushes its characters too far. We want to empathize and chuckle, not feel shame or antipathy. In Schitt's, the characters all have undeniably good hearts; sometimes you wonder about the family members in this film. Fortunately, the ending brings them all back into line and caring about what really matters.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about how money can complicate family relationships, as it does in The Price of Family. Do you have any experience with this? What other films and series have you watched that take on this theme?
What do you think of the characters' behavior in this movie? Who did you sympathize with the most and least, and why?
How did the songs used in the soundtrack support the action of what was happening in specific scenes? Can you think of any examples?
Movie Details
- On DVD or streaming: January 27, 2023
- Cast: Christian De Sica, Angela Finocchiaro, Dharma Mangia Woods
- Director: Giovanni Bognetti
- Studio: Netflix
- Genre: Comedy
- Topics: Brothers and Sisters, Holidays
- Run time: 90 minutes
- MPAA rating: NR
- Last updated: February 17, 2023
Our Editors Recommend
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