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The Perfect Family
By Barbara Shulgasser-Parker,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Family dramedy about self-discovery has language.
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The Perfect Family
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What's the Story?
THE PERFECT FAMILY is populated by far-from-perfect characters, including the rigid and critical Lucia (Belen Rueda), the upper-class, prim, and proper wife of astronomy professor Ernesto (Gonzalo de Castro) and mother of lawyer Pablo (Gonzalo Ramos). Pablo lives at home and is terrified to tell his parents he's engaged to Sara (Carolina Yuste), the outgoing and crude daughter of a bus driver. Ernesto doesn't know where the refrigerator is or how to use the microwave until his wife goes away for a few days. Sara's mom is too loud and casual for Lucia's taste and the families are at odds after their first meeting. Soon Lucia is thrown together with Sara's father, Miguel (Jose Coronado). As they shop for the wedding dress and make other preparations, they discover an ungovernable passion that culminates shockingly at their children's wedding. There and then, he announces his new love to his wife, Amparo (Pepa Aniorte), while Lucia protests that she can't explode her entire life over an unexpected hormonal spike. When she talks about it with Ernesto, his tepid response lights the TNT and she leaves him, finds a dirty apartment, and gets a job. What will become of Lucia?
Is It Any Good?
The second half of The Perfect Family is a feel-good antidote to the first, lamer half. Stick-figure characters dominate the early scenes, but all undergo unlikely personality transplants, some morphing from clichés of middle-class crudeness and ignorance to enlightened intelligence, and others from aloof and disconnected wealth to grounded, sympathetic decency. The transformations aren't believable, but at least the people we have before us at the film's end are mostly appealing.
Lucia, played by the luminous Belen Rueda, starts as a critical, controlling, emotionless automaton as she knee-jerk recoils at the coarse ways of her in-laws-to-be. When no longer shackled to that preposterous character, Rueda glows, now embodying the new Lucia, a picture of acceptance, warmth, passion, and understanding. All it took, the filmmakers seem to suggest, was having an affair and cleaning a filthy toilet. Lucia seems far warmer and happier as a working woman than as a privileged housewife and mom, and it's catching. Eventually her family and in-laws change, too, and come together in peace and appreciation. It's not where the movie seemed to be taking us at the start, but it's good that it got us there.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about how Lucia's transformation is expressed in The Perfect Family. How does she react to the coarse casualness of her in-laws at the beginning? How has she changed by the time she deals with moving to a dilapidated apartment of her own?
Do you think the movie does a good job of pitting members of one socioeconomic level against those of another? Why, or why not?
Why do you think Lucia acts the way she does?
Movie Details
- On DVD or streaming: May 15, 2022
- Cast: Belen Rueda , Jose Coronado , Carolina Yuste , Gonzalo Ramos , Gonzalo de Castro
- Director: Arantxa Eschevarria
- Inclusion Information: Female actors, Latino actors
- Studio: Netflix
- Genre: Drama
- Run time: 110 minutes
- MPAA rating: NR
- Last updated: February 17, 2023
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