Runs in the Family (2023)
★★★½ — Runs in the Family (2023)
I did not see the twists coming. Not once, not twice, but repeatedly, in a film from Eswatini that I picked up as part of my A-Z World Movie Tour and honestly expected very little from. Runs in the Family kept pulling the rug out from under me in ways that would make M. Night Shyamalan take notes, and by the time the credits rolled I was sat there genuinely moved. That surprised me more than any of the plot turns.
Let me be honest though, because the first half does not make it easy on you. It drags. There is no getting around that. The pacing is slow in a way that feels less like deliberate restraint and more like the film is still finding its feet, and the acting has its hammy moments that will test your patience. I nearly checked out a couple of times, and I would not blame anyone who did.
But then Monica arrives, and everything shifts.
The film is, at its heart, the story of a trans man having to suddenly reckon with the return of an absent mother he has had to build a life without. That is already a lot to carry. The emotional weight of that reunion, all the things left unsaid, the grief and the anger and the strange pull of wanting something from someone who let you down, that is rich territory. What genuinely caught me off guard is how much more the film piles on top of that foundation. There is a lot going on here, and the second half handles it with a confidence and warmth that the first half simply does not have. Monica's arrival does not just give the story momentum, it gives it a soul.
And yes, before you ask, when I said the first half really drags and then they pick up Monica and it all shifts up a gear, and she happens to be in drag, I was absolutely delighted with myself for that one. No pun intended, as I said, but I'll take it.
The emotive scenes in the back half really do land. There is a tenderness in the way the film handles questions of identity, family and forgiveness that feels earned rather than imposed, and by the time you reach the ending you are properly invested. It wraps up in a way that left me with a warm feeling rather than a hollow one, which is harder to pull off than it sounds. Feel-good done right is not sentimental slop, it is genuine relief after genuine tension, and this film gets there.
Eswatini is not a country you see represented in cinema very often, and one of the quiet pleasures of this A-Z tour has been stumbling across stories from places that rarely get a seat at the table. The African continent has given me some real surprises along the way, not unlike my experience with Adera (2009), another film I came to with low expectations and left feeling genuinely glad I made the time for it.
Is Runs in the Family a perfect film? Not even close. The rough edges are real, the slow start costs it, and a few of the performances are broad enough to take you out of the moment. But it has genuine heart, a story worth telling, and a second half that more than justifies sitting through the first. For a film I knew absolutely nothing about before pressing play, that feels like a win.
Three and a half stars.
Rating: ★★★½ | Year: 2023 | Watched: 2025-06-17
Where to watch
Watch in the UK
Stream: Netflix · Netflix Standard with Ads
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi
Watch in the US
Stream: Netflix · Netflix Standard with Ads
Physical: Amazon US
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