Serial Mom seeks sooth. Kathleen Turner is a dynamo lighting up Anne Renton’s “The Perfect Family,” a Catholic-oriented “let’s-put-on-a-show!”-scaled comedy of modest range. As a suburban mother who covets the local Catholic Woman of the Year plaque, Turner gives the material her all, even when the material is maddeningly shallow or internally contradictory. Conflict ensues with her “nonconformist” family, including a lesbian daughter (Emily Deschanel) and a philandering son (Jason Ritter), and her husband is a recovering alcoholic. Let the interpersonal eamy-squeamies ensue! Renton, whose company is called “Certainty Films,” is a physiotherapist-turned-filmmaker who assures us that “We have the opportunity to take a dive into their lives, laugh and cry with them and hold compassion for the tightly held external façade unraveling right before our main character’s eyes.” Gratefully, “The Perfect Family”‘s many lessons are parceled out with slightly more grace than that sentence. Non-practicing audiences are likely to find the ubiquitous cross pendants and religious appurtenances a distraction. With Richard Chamberlain as local priest Monsignor Murphy, who beams mightily before popping his eyes at the line, “What is it with young men these days!” With Elizabeth Peña, Sharon Lawrence and June Squibb as “Mrs. Punch.” 84m. (Ray Pride)
Ray Pride is Newcity’s Senior Editor and Film Critic. He is a contributing editor of Filmmaker magazine.
Ray’s history of Chicago Ghost Signs is planned for publication next year. Previews of the project are on Twitter and on Instagram. More photography on Instagram.
Heart: A Review of Soul The real world is soulful, too, in Pixar's bountiful life of the mind.
Seeing The Elephant: A Review Of Babylon The boisterous, brawling yet melancholy "Babylon," is a variation on film history, but more drawing for drama. It's gaudy and mean, celebratory and sorrowful.
A Drag Getting Old: A Review Of Indiana Jones 5 In the protracted opening couple of reels, a very young, computer-crafted Harrison Ford plays a younger cultural marauder who first encounters the dull MacGuffin of the title.
Spawn Sacrifice: A Review Of The Creator "The Creator" is richly detailed, punchy, pulpy, punkish entertainment that still has highly serious subjects in mind, without growing didactic and with substantial heart.
