‘Kin’ feels like an NRA-sponsored kids’ fantasy
“Kin,” like its distant TV cousin “Stranger Things,” mashes up a lot of genres into something that’s familiar yet somehow different. It’s a film that mixes action, science fiction, a road trip, family drama and crime thriller into a creation that more or less resembles a movie.
Unlike “Stranger Things,” though, the characters in “Kin” aren’t very interesting or appealing, and the story’s star attraction — a lethal gun from a faraway world — gives the movie the unseemly feel of an NRA-sponsored kids’ fantasy. Making matters worse, there are more false acting notes here than from an elementary school band playing Beethoven’s Fifth.
Directors Jonathan and Josh Baker get things off to a promising start, as disconnected teenager Eli (Myles Truitt) ransacks an abandoned Detroit building for valuable copper wire. The shell of a structure makes for a haunting space, both on a terrestrial and extraterrestrial level. There, Eli discovers the otherworldly gun, before he is chased off by strange beings that bear a striking resemblance to Darth Vader.
Naturally, Eli cannot resist having this laser-firing, wallblasting gizmo, which we are led to believe would be No. 1 on any kid’s holiday gift list. After improbably retrieving the weapon, Eli, of course, needs a reason to use it, so the writers conveniently introduce an older ex-con brother, Jimmy ( Jack Reynor), who is just out of prison and ready to get the plot moving, thanks to his involvement with a group of nasty criminals.
After the knucklehead Jimmy commits the first of many reprehensible acts, he, Eli and Eli’s new toy are off and running toward California, with thugs and aliens (who want their gun back) in hot pursuit. Oddly, these complications don’t manage to add much tension, and the implausible scenes start to build up — not because we can’t buy into the fantastical sci-fi conceit, but because of the ridiculous interactions between the characters.
When Eli and Jimmy supposedly bond and try to talk indepth about their family situation, our eyes start to get sore from all their rolling. Also cringe-worthy is the appearance of a stripper (Zoe Kravitz) who inexplicably joins up with Eli and Jimmy after Eli wards off some seedy strip bar bosses with a flick of his special gun.
It’s not that the actors in “Kin” are bad so much as they are stranded with inane lines — not to mention actions that defy human logic. And the film does have a few interesting performances: Dennis Quaid, as the brothers’ downtrodden but ethical father, breathes life into his small role. And James Franco, though he’s over-the-top demented, gives the film a boost when he’s on the screen, particularly during an amusing moment in a convenience store and an arresting scene where he leads the funeral of his brother. But, alas, most of Franco’s antics don’t make any sense, either.
At its heart, “Kin” wants to be a film about how the fractured elements of a family can come together, but those themes simply don’t register. Instead of being touched, we are repelled as we watch Jimmy behaving badly and the 14-year-old Eli blasting away with his kick-ass gun — even if the victims are the bad guys. There’s a notable science fiction twist at the end, but like many things in this movie, it seems tacked on.
“Kin” is not a snoozer, at least, and the Baker brothers are certainly not untalented, but their genre-mashing experiment doesn’t work on any emotional level.