Solemplex To me, this movie is perfection.

LouHomey From my favorite movies..

Mischa Redfern I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Nicole I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

gavin6942 Lighthearted suspense film about a phony psychic/con artist and her taxi driver/private investigator boyfriend who encounter a pair of serial kidnappers while trailing a missing heir in California.When you think of Hitchcock's best films, you think "Vertigo", "Psycho" and "Rear Window", to name a few. You very rarely hear "Family Plot" mentioned, but I would argue it is among his best and a fine way to retire.The humor is nice, especially with the wonderful Bruce Dern. But really, this is just pure mystery and suspense. Is the missing child alive? If yes, who is he? And who is chasing who? This is such a great mystery film it deserves a second or third viewing.

zkonedog This is not a classic movie. It is a little bit odd for Hitchcock fare. There are times when it is even a little bit boring. Remarkably, however, "Family Plot" tells a good enough story (and contains good enough acting) to still be a worthwhile experience.For a basic plot summary, "Family Plot" tells the story of Blanche Tyler (Barbara Harris), a "faker" psychic medium, and her boyfriend George (Bruce Dern). On one of her phony psychic sessions, Blanche is given the opportunity to earn $10,000 for finding the lost relative of one Julia Rainbird (Cathleen Nesbitt). As the lovers criss-cross the city looking for the lost man, they end up caught in the scheme of a jewel thief (played by William Devane).The reason this is a solid movie is because the story lines are so interesting. The hunt for the mysterious "Eddie Shoebridge" contains enough mystery to really suck you in and make you WANT to see the resolution. The concurrent jewel-thief plot is also interesting enough to make you wonder how the two can possibly be related. Through some of the so-so periods that this movie most definitely hits, the overall goal is fascinating enough that you won't even consider turning it off.Another factor that really helps, too, is the acting. Bruce Dern is an incredible character actor, and carries every scene he is given. Harris & Devane are also very capable leads that comprise good scenes with each other. At those moments when the overall storyline lags just a bit, the acting is good enough to keep you "in the movie".Overall, "Family Plot" is just an interesting little flick. It isn't "epic" (in any sense of the word) like some of Hitch's earlier fare, but it is just a fun little mystery/comedy that will sweep you away for two hours.

Red-Barracuda Family Plot is definitely most famous for one thing. And that is that it was legendary director Alfred Hitchcock's last movie. It isn't generally considered amongst his better films; in fact many outright dislike it. For me, while I agree it's uneven, I find it very enjoyable and not such a bad way for the great man to bow out all things considered. It's about a con artist couple trying to get rich by means of having the woman pretend to be a psychic. Through this they are offered $10,000 by a rich elderly woman if they can find the son she put up for adoption forty years before. Their inquiries into the mystery put them on a dangerous path.You could say that this is a film about two crooked couples - the good-bad couple and the bad-bad one. The paths of both ultimately collide through fate and I suppose we are invited to compare both. The con artists are played by Bruce Dern and Barbara Harris, while the kidnappers are William Devane and Karen Black. All are good in their respective roles. As for Hitch himself, well it's not one of his most inventive films with not too many moments typical of him; although the introduction of the Karen Black character is very well done. Replete in blonde wig, shades and clad head to toe in leather, she looks very striking, she first appears when she steps out of the dark and is almost run over by Dern, thereby neatly inter-linking both strands of the story early on.If there is a clear weakness in the film, it's most probably that it cannot maintain both strands of the story without sacrificing the mystery element. For this reason, it's better earlier on. For the remainder of the movie Dern and Harris try to uncover what is going on but seeing as the audience know already it doesn't have much of an impact. I wonder if they had played up the mystery more, then this could have been a better film over all. But no matter because it still basically works. It essentially is a comedy-thriller. Sometimes combining both genres in one scene, for instance the sequence where a car with no brakes is hurtling down a mountain road. In this example, though, the combination of comedy and thrills doesn't entirely work because it's an exciting scene that is somewhat marred by Barbara Harris ridiculous comedy acting. In the main though, the comedy and suspense are kept apart which works far better. You could probably argue, however, that maybe the thriller side of the story doesn't go as far as it could. For example, the ending is very rushed and could have probably been thought out better. But, minor issues aside, I like this one.

TheLittleSongbird It is nice to see that Family Plot is getting more recognition other than being the swan-song of one of the most influential directors in cinema. Despite Hitchcock being my favourite director, I wasn't sure whether I would like Family Plot after hearing from people, both on IMDb and outside, that it was one of his weakest. I'm glad I did see it(and I would have done anyway) because while it is not among Hitch's best(Psycho, Vertigo, Rear Window, Rebecca) it is nowhere near one of his weakest(Jamaica Inn, Under Capricorn, Topaz, The Paradine Case). True, the film is a little long, the story is convoluted and a few scenes are incoherent as a result and Karen Black's character could have been much more developed. Family Plot does look good though(if not one of his best-looking films like Vertigo, To Catch a Thief and The Trouble with Harry), both audacious and gritty and the photography services these very well. John Williams' score is jaunty and haunting, and sensibly more restrained than some of the bombast of his very best scores.The dialogue has strong bouts of fun and tension with good interplay between the cast, the humour though is more a subtle blend rather than busting-your-gut every minute. There is also a lot of innuendo that surprises you at how much the film gets away with. The story is convoluted but still intriguing and doesn't feel dull, there is still a good amount of mystery and tension amongst the fun. The sequence with the car out of control was the film's most memorable one, and it seemed that Hitchcock was paying homage here to all his previous work(ie. the attempted murder with the neck-tie almost reminiscent of Frenzy, to me anyway). Hitchcock's directing was taut and sly, I didn't detect any evidence that he didn't have his heart in it, yes maybe Dern and Harris' characters are much more developed than those of Black and Devane's but I put that down to the writing too. The acting is fine, none of the four lead players give performances that rank among the best of any Hitchcock film but I didn't expect that. I don't think Bruce Dern and Barbara Harris have done better since, William Devane is very chilling and quite brutal and Karen Black seems to be having fun despite her character not being as developed well as the rest.In conclusion, a good swan-song, and while not among the Master of Suspense's best I do think it gets a bad rap for either the viewer having too high expectations, or that it was a noble but failed attempt at doing something different or bad timing in a decade of disaster movies and with the likes of Spielberg, DeNiro and Pacino(I personally think it's a bit of all). And of course there'll be people who didn't care for it, and that's understandable, as while I did really enjoy Family Plot I can definitely see why people will find fault with it. 7.5/10 Bethany Cox