It's not very easy to love the Coopers

LOVE the Coopers is the latest in a long line of movies that examine the chronic dysfunction afflicting a "typical" American family. They and others of their ilk show up on our cinema screens a couple of times each year - often during the holiday season.

The characters will have personal issues, insecurities and eccentricities that are revealed and resolved (or not) as the film unfolds. By the end we might be charmed (The Royal Tenenbaums, 2001), amused (Parenthood, 1989, Meet the Parents, 2000) or both (The Squid and the Whale, 2005).

In the case of the Cooper family, there is only indifference.