The Perfect Family (2011)

Here's another good one, a comedy with Kathleen Turner as a suburban matron who fears that her unconventional family--recovering alcoholic husband, philandering son, and lesbian daughter--will keep her from winning Catholic Woman of the Year. We liked it a lot. This is one of those roles where people will say Turner (my favorites are Body Heat (1981), Romancing the Stone (1984), Prizzi's Honor (1985), The Jewel of the Nile (1985), Peggy Sue Got Married (1986) for which she was Oscar-nominated, The War of the Roses (1989), Serial Mom (1994), The Virgin Suicides (1999), and a series arc as a vulgar agent in Californication in 2009) is "brave," for being unglamorous when she used to be such a babe (she turned 58 last month and looks it in this movie). Whatever--she's very funny. Jason Ritter (I enjoyed him in Mumford (1999), Happy Endings (2005), the series The Class (2006-07), The Education of Charlie Banks (2007), Good Dick, and the series Parenthood) and Emily Deschanel (with similar blue eyes to her younger sister Zooey, her filmography is shorter, but she plays "Bones" on the series of that name and it's had 7 seasons so far) are very appealing as the son and daughter and I liked Michael McGrady (a long resumé but I don't recognize him) as the husband. Sharon Lawrence (mostly TV, from NYPD Blue through Monk and beyond) plays the competition for Catholic Woman of the Year and Richard Chamberlain (faves are 191 episodes of Dr. Kildare (1961-66), The Last Wave (1977), Shogun (1980), and a series arc on Brothers & Sisters) a smarmy priest.

This is the feature debut of director Anne Renton and co-writer Claire V. Riley, and not of co-writer Paula Goldberg, though she's new to me. There are plenty of laughs and the ending isn't a surprise, although, as I recall, it seems unlikely that the last sequence could have all happened in the time it's supposed to happen. Whatever. Still cute.

I think I liked the music but saw this almost four weeks ago and there aren't any clips of the score by Andrew Kaiser. The movie's website does list all the songs in the "ABOUT" section of the official website.

This is doing poorly on rottentomatoes, with 48% from critics and only 40% from audiences. It came out on netflix 4 days after we saw it, so you can put it at the end of your queue if this sounds like something you'd like. Competition is fierce nowadays!