The Perfect Family
The Perfect Family
| 30 April 2011 (USA)
The Perfect Family Trailers

Kathleen Turner stars as suburban mother and devout Catholic Eileen Cleary, who has always kept up appearances. When she runs for the Catholic Woman of the Year title at her local parish, her final test is introducing her family to the board for the seal of approval. Now she must finally face the nonconformist family she has been glossing over for years...

Reviews
Interesteg What makes it different from others?
Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good
Borgarkeri A bit overrated, but still an amazing film
Taraparain Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.
heedser-675-365004 Watching the first part of this movie, I enjoyed the acting and story. As it progressed, the agenda became clearer focusing on the Kathleen Turner character as the "problem". Is it so nutty to honor our marriage vows and encourage our children to do so too? Our parents and grandparents didn't think so. I guess everybody's desires must overrun any other commitments and the rightness or wrongness of any said desires must not be questioned. The only real "freak" is the old fashioned Mom. I question that.The Catholic Church seems to be a free target now when every other group must not be slandered. I doubt most people who happen to read this would agree because when we want to see things that justify us, thats what we see and most of society likes to think it is right no matter what it does.
dr-t-630-653366 This was an interesting movie, but I have to wonder how much the writer, producer, or director knows about current Catholic practice. There were a lot of details wrong. For one thing, no Catholic-sponsored organization would ever offer "lifetime-absolution" as a prize for a Woman of the Year Award--that kind of thinking in the Catholic Church went out with the Council of Trent. Absolution from sin is available to any Catholic through a sincere reception of the sacrament of Reconciliation--you don't have to win it as a prize. For another thing, no Catholic would say a blessing before eating with "Come Lord Jesus, be our guest, etc." It would always be "Bless us o Lord AND (not FOR) these thy gifts." And all Catholics are not of Irish descent--the archbishop of Dublin wouldn't be anyone special, other than maybe one more archbishop. Errors like these might seem trivial, but they seem to indicate that someone hasn't researched Catholicism very well, which, to me, diminishes their right to criticize it.
unsolicitedmale I'm surprised at such a low score for this movie! First, please know that I was born, baptized, and raised Catholic. I've since moved to another religion, but not for any "Catholic hate" reasons at all. So I have a STRONG knowledge of Catholicism. It seems MOST of the negative reviews claim it's "Christian/Catholic bashing"... I would wonder how many of those folks actually WATCHED it or just wrote a review based on a presupposed notion. There is NO Christian bashing at all IMO. Just portraying people such as I've known all my life the way they are, and the portrayal isn't bad in any way, as far as I'm concerned.Overall it's very balanced - yeah there's a few potshots at Catholics ("I don't have to think... I'm Catholic") but overall, the portrayal is VERY accurate to my Catholic upbringing and those in the faith I know today. Sure, hardly ANY nuns still wear the habit - but it's just little things. By and large the portrayal I thought was fair on ALL SIDES, not only for the Catholics but all the other characters.I'll be honest and say I FULLY EXPECTED a "Christians are stupid knuckle dragging Neanderthals" flick - I expected to shut it off half way through. Instead, I watched the whole thing and rather enjoyed it.The movie itself actually plays quite well - Kathleen Turner takes a bit of getting used to because of her very deep, manly voice... but overall, it has a nicely done "indie" feel to it in every way.No, it's NOT an award contender in any way - some of the acting is rather stiff and forced, the plot is predictable, and there are quite a few clichés and stereotypes. But it's VERY watchable, totally held my attention, was touching in places, and ENJOYABLE to watch right up to the end for me.Give it a shot - don't let the negative reviews implying it's a "Christian bashing" flick deter you.
Tony Heck "I don't have to think, I'm catholic." Eileen Cleary (Turner) has finally been nominated for Catholic Woman Of The Year and wants to win it badly. She will stop at nothing to win which includes trying to cover up her families choices. She then becomes conflicted as to winning or being a supportive mother. I have to start by saying that after the first half hour I was almost ready to turn this off. I'm not saying that it wasn't good but just really slow and seemed to lack emotion. The more I watched the better it got though and I really liked the ending. For a movie like this the ending was perfect. My biggest problem with this movie is that it seemed to lack real emotion and all the performances seemed flat and phoned in. I'm not sure what it was but I just felt like it was missing something to make me feel for the characters. Overall, a movie with a perfect ending that is worth watching but was lacking any real emotion from the actors. I give it a B-.