Hill Country FF Review: The Perfect Family

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The Perfect Family

Dear Kathleen Turner: I missed you. I confess I'd almost forgotten about you. And then you turned up surprisingly in the starring role of The Perfect Family, leading a cast that worked together beautifully to portray a very believable family, even amid an often-unbelievable plot. Don't be a stranger, okay?

In The Perfect Family, Turner plays Eileen Cleary, a devout Catholic middle-aged wife-and-mom whose spends her days in charitable church-related activities, such as delivering meals to the elderly, now that her children are grown and out of the house. Monsignor Murphy (Richard Chamberlain) nominates her for the church's Catholic Woman on the Year award ... and she'll be competing against a woman who's been her rival since grade school. The winner will receive the sacrament of absolution from the Archbishop of Dublin, who will attend the award ceremony.

The monsignor tells Eileen to expect a home visit where her children should be present, but he's not worried since of course, she has "the perfect family." What he doesn't know is that her son Frank Jr. (Jason Ritter) has separated from his wife and is dating the local manicurist, and that her daughter Shannon (Emily Deschanel) is about to get married to another woman. When Eileen herself finds out about what her kids have been up to, she is amazingly distraught and tries to get them to reconsider their choices.

The storyline is unrealistic to the point of being ridiculous at times, although maybe if you didn't grow up Catholic, you wouldn't notice.  Here we have a small-town church headed up by an Irish monsignor (not a priest), which is going to get a visit from the Archbishop of Dublin? Where is this movie set, exactly? And who gets this worked up about an award that's limited only to their small church parish? (And if it's such a small parish, why hasn't Eileen won earlier?) I realize that this is all exaggerated for effect, but it still seemed too artificial, especially when compared to the real emotions and situations that the characters are dealing with.

The relationships in The Perfect Family don't seem artificial, but are beautifully written and acted. Once you get past the silly competition aspect of the film, the heart of this movie is a family that's trying to be united, but being thwarted primarily by Eileen's dogmatic beliefs. At one point, her daughter asks her to please think about the situation, and she says, "I don't have to think, I'm a Catholic!" Which is very funny in a painfully true way. The movie also does a nice job in showing us that not all Catholics have to be dogmatic, too.

Deschanel, Turner, Ritter and Michael McGrady as the dad really shine in this movie, with help from Angelique Cabral as Shannon's fiancee Angela and Elizabeth Pena as her mom. Pena in particular takes a role that could have been ridiculous and adds a layer of warmth and sincerity.

It's impossible for me to write about The Perfect Family without mentioning Kathleen Turner's looks, much as I am reluctant to be That Person. Turner is no longer young and skinny -- she's in her late 50s, after all. And it is wonderful to see how she is not hiding her age or her figure. Onscreen, she appears to be totally comfortable in her skin, which is refreshing to see after being shocked by actresses in their forties who are trying to fight their age in often frightening ways. Turner looks like someone you might encounter in the grocery, and I like that, both in the context of this movie and in real life.

The Perfect Family manages to address the issues of families resolving religion and gay family members in a way that feels sincere without getting sappy or too sentimental. I admit I prefer An Ordinary Family (Mike's review), Texas filmmaker Mike Akel's look at a weekend where a minister and his family must spend vacation time with his gay brother and the brother's boyfriend. It didn't have to rely on an over-the-top plot to make its points.