Elizabeth Scalia over at The Anchoress website provides a clip of the movie “The Perfect Family” in which the Catholic Church is ridiculed and condemned. (one comedic line: “I don’t have to think—I’m Catholic!”) Some scenes are indeed funny—with that kind of self-deprecating humor that one expects to be allowed for “insiders”—but others are definitely not, because, judging from the trailer, the film is definitely not a mere vehicle for Catholics to make fun of themselves; it’s the opposite: a serious, very un-funny showcase for “liberal” anti-Catholics to display their self-perceived moral superiority. In fact, one imagines the mind-route of its writers: this priest character is so funny, Catholics will laugh, then Catholics will see that he’s not so funny, he’s prejudiced against gays, he’s a bigot, the Catholic Church is bigoted. This movie tells anti-Catholics to congratulate themselves and Catholics to re-think their affiliation with the Church—all in “harmless” fun. It’s comedic sheep’s clothing at its subtle best, intolerant hatefulness in its cleverest disguise, ignorance in the show-business costume of wisdom. And that’s just the trailer . . . .
One comment follows Elizabeth’s post, reminding viewers of the trailer that we’re meant “for a sign and a contradiction.” Okay—where’s the contradiction? Where are the contradictory films? True, there have been one or two in recent years (the old 1940s black-and-white sentimentals on EWTN don’t count.) that focus on Catholic values (think “Bella”), but not on Catholicism or the Church itself—as this film certainly does.
Evangelism doesn’t mean just going around improving cultural values. It doesn’t mean just telling the story of an unmarried girl having the courage to give birth to her child instead of aborting it. It means actually using hard words like “Christ,” like “redemption” and even, maybe, “the Church.” Catholic writers, publishers, and producers must find their courage, for, heaven help us—this is only the green wood, what will we do when the wood becomes dry?
lol! I had the misfortune I watching the trailer myself on ondemand. As soon as I saw the very title of the film I knew it would be the complete opposite, anti-religious, and probably have something to do with homosexuality. Boy was I spot on!
Hollywood, your just not original enough to fool me.
Well, there’s “For the Greater Glory” opening on June 1st. Looks like it’s going to be a good one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QUb_StcVzg.
That said, your point is *well* taken.
At first I did not know what that movie was you were talking about Bernardo, then I looked it up. I have heard of that movie before, it was until just recently called Cristiada (I actually prefer that title). Hope it will be good!
A friend tells me that the movie depicts a positive change in the main character at the end. But another comment from one who’s seen it is that the change is the result of the character becoming “enlightened by secular wisdom.”