The Perfect Family

Eileen Cleary (Kathleen Turner) is desperate to be the best Catholic in the neighborhood. So it's great news when she's nominated for Catholic Woman of the year. Except her family is a mess of inappropriateness and she needs to be better than all the rest for the award. Her lesbian daughter Shannon (Emily Deschanel) is pregnant. Her son Frank Cleary Jr. (Jason Ritter) left his wife and kids for the beautician next door. Her husband Frank Cleary (Michael McGrady) can't stand her.

This is not anti-Catholic in my opinion. It is much more anti-competition to see who's the best Catholic. It's the competition that's ugly. The central theme is acceptance. After all, she wins the award even when all is revealed. Kathleen Turner's character is too harsh and unlikeable. It's hard to watch sometimes. However, it was nice to watch her character grow.

As a person raised in a strict Catholic community it warmed my heart to see this movie. I wish it was shown at every Catholic church in the world because the acceptance and forgiveness in this movie is more in keeping with the teachings of Christ than the hate that is spewed by the sheep in his name. How anyone could think this is anti-catholic when it is all about what it means to be a real follower of Jesus and about God's love for all his creations. The only unbelievable thing was that the mother would be able to forgive herself and accept her children when the reality is many Catholics will reject and harm their children rather than question their self-serving dogma.

This movie fell prey to several misconceptions. First.., The Perfect Family was unfortunately categorized (somewhere) as a Comedy. That was a bit of a mistake..; and subsequently.. certain reviewers were disappointed and miffed.., having brought to the film certain expectations, which only got in the way. Once chagrined however, some of these hard-nose reviewers seemed to take pleasure in accusing the film of Catholic bashing. I am not Catholic myself; and I never noticed ANYWHERE that it was supposed to be funny. On the other hand, I do admit to holding a certain amount of anti-Catholic sentiment, and would likely have noticed any significant amount of bashing.., which I did NOT. Ergo, I simply watched the movie.. more-or-less tabula rasa.. and enjoyed it, while having my belief confirmed.. that a wife and children are inevitably more trouble than they're worth.

What I noticed most.. was the irony -- that the hard-line generally taken by mom Cleary.. was reproduced by some of the more negative reviewers.., who seemed quite offended that the movie was not virtually a true-to-life documentary.., especially because of the liberal spin that was given to the alleged family values and Catholic doctrines depicted, while trying to present them nonetheless as if they were still conservative. And, admittedly.. this would be irksome.

Next.., these kind of movie viewers might have a hard time with movies in general.. if they CAN'T accept that Art is NOT obliged to represent reality with total accuracy. So, rather than dissect the plot, or compliment Turner on her acting, or assess the various details of production.. since everyone else has already done so .., I want to remind everyone that when you watch a Hollywood movie, you will be getting a heavy dose of indoctrination or propaganda, mostly designed to further the globalist/liberal/satanistic agenda.., such as has gotten us where we are - here, awaiting our modern-day boxcars.. all, like sheep, wearing ineffective masks for a pandemic which is a total fiction anyway.

The real, un-cinematic Truth here is that most religions will fail us.., since they are fashioned and dominated by corrupt individuals who seek power, money, and self importance. And, all modern Organized Religion is rife with corruption at the top.., while neared the bottom, you can find true, sincere, humble believers, bought with the blood of Jesus Christ.. and many Catholics, who try to serve their church, their family, and their community.. far better than a lot of fundamentalist Protestants I know. (I hereby proclaim next week to be.. Take A Catholic To Lunch Week.., though I would avoid Friday.)

Forgive the aside.., but FOR the one person who might ever read this, and who is a born-again Catholic.., you have a truly great spokesman for Truth in the YouTube channel "Church Militant".. presenting episodes of "The Vortex", a Catholic news show.. which is doing a good job of truthing, while trying not to deeply offend those Catholics who misguidedly think "Mother Teresa" was one of the good guys.., or are oblivious to the pagan roots of Catholicism.. or the fact that the Pope's Audience Hall is deliberately shaped to resemble a snake's head, thereby revealing the Pope's true Luciferian allegiance. (Hear me now, and believe me later.)

All in all.., The Perfect family was moderately enjoyable, with the possible exception of Emily Deschanel, who is the quintessential One Trick Pony. cheers!!😇

"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-.

As a fallen-down Catholic with reservations about the Church, I wasn't prepared for an even-tempered story about a devout mother, Eileen (Kathleen Turner) facing a family at odds with some basic Church doctrines. While I still stay away, I found The Perfect Family wise about the devotion of true believers and wary of extremists.

Eileen has been nominated for Catholic Woman of the Year (disclosure: one of my former wives was elected Vermont Catholic Mother of the Year—a true irony). In order to impress the archbishop, she must show an exemplary family. Not easy, as she discovers a son about to divorce and a daughter marrying a woman and having a child. Modern as these situations are, they are not acceptable to the teachings of the church about the sanctity of marriage and children born of that union. The film gently but assuredly moves Eileen's life along just as you might expect it to go with any contemporary Catholic family facing decisions.

Although the denouement is too pat, it doesn't deviate too much from what might really happen, and with a little surprise accompanying it all. Kathleen Turner provides the right amount of hyper-ventilation when faced with the truth of her children's situations and her formerly alcoholic husband. Richard Chamberlain as Monsignor Murphy shows director Anne Renton's sense of humor using an actor who played a randy prelate in The Thorn Birds. In Catholic town, nothing is as it seems except for my very real indoctrination by the Sisters of Saint Joseph.