The Perfect Family

Kathleen Turner was great as a neurotic and psychopathic mom in Serial Mother. When I watched the trailer of The Perfect Mother, I laughed, and so I expected to find in it the same folly as in John Waters' comedy. Eileen Cleary is a mother and a devout catholic. She happens to be nominated against her best enemy for the award of the catholic woman of the year. If she wins, she will receive the greatest prize : the absolution of her sins. To be elected, she needs to be assiduous at church and in her charity works, but she also needs to have a perfect family. The trouble is, her husband is a former alcoholic, her son has just left his wife and kids for the manicurist next door, and her daughter is gay, and pregnant. The accumulation of clichés as obstacles can be funny in a comedy, but not here. The film – except for some good lines and Turner's acting – is pretty boring. I didn't laugh, I barely smiled. It takes ages to actually start, and when it does, it doesn't go very far. Eileen is in a quandary : she has to choose between her family and her faith. What will she do ? I mean come on, this is a comedy, we all know how it is going to end. The problem is not the end really. The problem is that the scenes that are supposed to illustrate Eileen's conflict with her family, and her own dilemma, are not funny, but they are not sad either, or deep. The film remains on the surface so as not to shock anyone. It remains politically correct, full of good intentions, so of course, it fails as a comedy, and it also fails as a drama. Don't waste your time watching more than the trailer.

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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.

"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-.

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.

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.