Not Perfect, But 'Perfect' for Me

As the masses lined up to see "The Avengers" over the weekend, Michael and I -- along with about eight other people -- jumped the line and went straight into "The Perfect Family," Anne Renton's dramedy about a devout Catholic mom coming to terms with the fact that even her own husband and kids -- not to mention herself -- struggle to live up to the church's expectations . Things reach a breaking point when Eileen (Kathleen Turner) is nominated for her parish's Catholic Woman of the Year award, which requires letters of recommendation and home visits and interviews with her clan and everyone's secrets slowly begin to be revealed. Claire V. Riley and Paula Goldberg's screenplay reeks of a made-for-TV movie, with wrapped-in-a-bow explanations for why everyone behaves the way he/she does and performances to match. Yet somehow I couldn't resist liking this film. Emily Deschanel, as the (gasp) lesbian daughter, Jason Ritter, as the (gasp) getting-a-divorce son, as well as hunky Michael McGrady as Eileen's reformed-alcoholic hubby, are all good. But it's Kathleen Turner who holds the whole thing together, as it's nearly impossible not to see one's own mother, grandmother, aunt or sister in her struggle.

To be honest, Turner was initially the problem with the film. As she appeared onscreen, Michael whispered to me, "She looks CRAZY," and for the first 15 minutes or so, I found it hard to even focus on the dialogue. Not sure if I'm being too hard on her because she's a former sex symbol ("Body Heat" is one of my all-time faves, and "Peggy Sue Got Married" is right up there, too), or if she's just had bad plastic surgery, or if she's the odd Hollywood combination of bad plastic surgery without also being in incredible shape, or if it's the drugs she takes for her rheumatoid arthritis, but she did not look "normal," even by the "lady down the street" definition of it. But once I got past that -- and the dated houses and automobiles (was this a period piece and I missed something?) -- I found myself rooting for this woman who had sacrificed everything for her husband and kids, and laughing sympathetically over her reactions to each new indignity, the source of which was her family merely being their true selves. "The Perfect Family" is a small film with a big heart, big enough for me to forgive it of its many schmaltzy sins. My grade: B.