The Perfect Family

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.

Simple little story that you can predict a mile away, but still worth watching. More of a drama, although it seems like a comedy at first. Love Kathleen Turner, so it was great to see her back in a starring role. It doesn't rip apart Catholics either, so that's cool too.

The opening scene with Kathleen Turner's voice praying in a church at first made me think I was watching a horror movie, her gravely voice is made for voicing people possessed by demons.

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.

I disagree with some of the reviewers here. This movie is true to the point for very devout Catholics. I grew up Catholic and saw a lot of prejuidice towards people because of the faith. The practices and beliefs of the Catholic church have hurt many people and this movie points to those. It also is a movie about growth. Not just in everyday relationships, but with yourself, and how one must balance real life and religion. This movie isn't to put down or make fun of Catholicism, rather those that are obsessed with how they are taken by their community. One can have faith (any faith) and still love and accept everyone, this movie teach this.

"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-.