Review | Unexpected Family movie review: Jackie Chan trades kicks for tears in sentimental drama
Chan excels as a man with Alzheimer’s disease in this well-meaning but ham-fisted film about the importance of family
3/5 stars
Jackie Chan strives to paint himself as a respectable father figure yet again in his new comedy drama Unexpected Family, playing an elderly man struggling with Alzheimer’s disease who mistakes a young loner for his own estranged son.
Short on action but long on ham-fisted life lessons, the debut feature from writer-director Li Taiyan – credited simply as “Tai” – seems tailor-made for the Chinese holiday season, with its fast-paced blend of slapstick humour, domestic squabbles and climactic melodrama.
When scruffy out-of-towner Bufan (Peng Yuchang) appears on Jia’s doorstep looking for a job, he is offered lodgings in Ren’s storeroom, only for the confused senior to mistake him for his own son, Zhuangzhuang.
Zhuangzhuang was a competitive weightlifter who, 30 years earlier, failed to secure a world championship. It is an episode that still haunts Ren’s fragmented memory.