“A Normal Family” begins with the death of a family, but not the one you might expect. Before his film turns its attention to the family alluded to by its title, director Hur Jin-ho revs out the gate with a case of road rage that ends in murder. Or maybe not, if the lawyer defending the driver in question has his way.
A man is dead and his eight-year-old daughter is critically injured in the hospital, but self-interested criminal lawyer Jae-wan (“Kill Boksoon‘s” Sol Kyung-gu) is more concerned with saving the wealthy executive’s son who’s responsible for the killing. Meanwhile, the attorney’s younger brother, doctor Jae-gyu (“Arthdal Chronicles’” Jang Dong-gun), is working tirelessly to save the victim’s daughter at a nearby hospital.
The pair couldn’t be more different at first, a contrast that becomes sharper during meals they share with their wives and each other in a fancy restaurant each month. It’s at one of these somewhat stilted affairs that the brothers realize they’re actually both involved in each other’s cases, with one imploring the other to do “the right thing.” But as Hur Jin-ho‘s script (which he worked on with “Monster” co-writer Park Eun-kyo) expertly untangles, what might be considered “right” can change in an instant when personal feelings are concerned.
Because while the adults (pretend to) enjoy a fine dining experience together, their teenage kids — Jae-wan’s daughter, Hye-yoon (Hong Ye-ji), and Jae-gyu’s younger son, Yang Si-ho (Kim Jung-chul) — reveal themselves to be the kind of people who will soon need to rely on the expertise of a criminal attorney (and perhaps an ER doctor too).
The seeds are sown early on when Si-ho squashes a bug with his finger and again soon after when he and his cousin secretly watch footage of that opening accident, cheering on the driver like they’re watching a livestream of “GTA V.” They practically break out the popcorn, overjoyed at the sight of a man losing control at the expense of another losing his life. Yet not even that can quite prepare you for what they do next.
While their parents bicker over the value of life, Si-ho and Hye-yoon prove that it means nothing to them when they brutally assault a homeless man for kicks on their way home from a party. It’s an unforgivable act, one they almost get away with if not for a hidden CCTV camera that brings to mind the work of Austrian auteur Michael Haneke. Like him, Hur Jin-ho is concerned with the fragility of moral standing and how mercurial these not-so-concrete notions of right and wrong can be when evil sleeps just down the hall.
In that light, “A Normal Family” is a far cry from the director’s previous work, often characterized as sweetly romantic in the likes of “One Fine Spring Day” (2001), “Happiness” (2007) and “A Good Rain Knows” (2009). Here, Hur Jin-ho strips romanticism away entirely in favor of something far bleaker, a worldview that’s as depressing as it is realistic. Every frame is slickly shot and constructed with the camera often held back at a distance from his protagonists, emphasizing the stark coldness that they come to embody, yet there’s nothing black-and-white about the moral space they occupy.
It’s in this messiness where “A Normal Family” thrives, even if the family itself does not, especially in the three dinners that form the centerpiece through which every thread of tension is tightly wound. Said tension simmers at first, and not just between the siblings.
Sol Kyung-gu and Jang Dong-gun are both spectacular, bringing to life decades of brotherly resentment with just a clipped tone or glance. But it’s the wives, played by Kim Hee-ae and Claudia Kim, who impress most with the delicate games they play. Kim’s Ji-su is the lawyer’s much younger trophy wife who Hee-ae’s Yeon-kyung takes great delight in cruelly teasing — “Why is this woman present during our family meeting?” — as layers of resentment and jealousy dance between the two.
Every expression and subtle shift in body language is mesmerizing to watch, and the same is true of the dinners themselves where stereotypes crack and then crumble before our eyes when four parents are faced with an impossible choice (“You claim innocence for criminals but you’ll report your own kid?”). The pace occasionally lags in between these foundational highlights, but the scenes that connect them remain a necessity, not just because they enrich the dinners with much-needed context, but also because they help differentiate the film from its source material to create something new and culturally specific.
Herman Koch’s original Dutch novel, titled “The Dinner” in English, took place over the course of just one tumultuous meal. Hur Jin-ho could have easily adopted that same route, but instead, he expands the idea across multiple days and locations to interrogate societal principles from a distinctly Korean perspective where the hardships of cram school directly play into the violence.
With more space to work with, his and Park Eun-kyo’s script forges a rhythmic push-and-pull between all parties concerned, dissecting the lives of the rich with a sharp precision. It’s impossible to escape the insidious way privilege twists culpability and brokers guilt within the framework of high society and those who profit from it. Can lives be bought? Can good deeds tip the scale? And how responsible are we as parents for the actions of those we raise?
It’s commendable that a story adapted three times already by various American and European filmmakers can remain as unpredictable as it does here, and the same is true of its refusal to give easy answers. The threat of violence hangs over even the most quiet of moments, and — some shoddy CGI animals aside — the film’s grip on that disturbing undercurrent is convincing throughout. That’s why the ending works so well, an abrupt climax that’s darkly poetic and anything but normal.
Grade: B
Room 8 Films will release “A Normal Family” in NYC & LA on Friday, April 25.
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