the perfect family movie review 2022

• Action/Adventure
• Children's/Family
• Documentary/Reality
• Amazon Prime Video

More From Decider

Jenn Tran's 'Bachelorette' Season: Everything We Know About Season 21

'The Bachelor' Season 28 Finale Recap: Did Joey Graziadei Get Engaged To...

'The View' Audience Groans After Kathy Griffin Compares Herself To...

Holly Madison Says There Was Demand For Her to Pose Nude on OnlyFans in...

Kate Middleton Conspiracy Theories Rage On As TikTok Debates If Her Cancer...

Fans Fear 'Euphoria' Season 3 Has Been Canceled After HBO Announces Yet...

'The View' Apologizes To Whoopi Goldberg For Going Down Kate Middleton...

Watch Kate Middleton's Heartbreaking Cancer Video Announcement, Told In...

Share this:.

• Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
• Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
• Click to copy URL

Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Perfect Family’ on Netflix, A Spanish Film About The Tensions Between A Woman And Her Mother-In-Law

Where to stream:.

• The Perfect Family (2022)

• Stream It Or Skip It

Stream It Or Skip It: 'Good One: A Show About Jokes' On Peacock, Charting Mike Birbiglia's Course As He Writes A New Comedy Show

Stream it or skip it: 'steve (martin). a documentary in 2 pieces,' on apple tv+, two starkly different takes on the still-evolving life and work of a comedy legend, stream it or skip it: 'parish' on amc, where giancarlo esposito is a man who gets deeper into new orleans organized crime when he wants to get out, stream it or skip it: ‘spermworld’ on fx, a profoundly probing documentary about internet sperm donors.

Hailing from Spanish writer Olatz Arroyo and director Arantxa Echevarría, The Perfect Family (or the Spanish title, La Familia Perfecta ), the Spanish language film landed on Netflix as part of a licensing deal. Is the story about an uptight mother and her son’s lower-class girlfriend in Madrid worth the stream?

THE PERFECT FAMILY : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Posh stay-at-home mom Lucia is shocked when her son Pablo introduces her to a lower-class woman, Sara, with the intention to marry her. Reluctantly, Lucia helps them plan their wedding along with Sara’s father Miguel, who inadvertently changes her life forever when they act on a mutual crush.

What Will It Remind You Of?: Lucia’s initial wedding sabotage plan felt like Jane Fonda in Monster-In-Law , but her character’s journey feels more like Julia Roberts’ reinvention in Eat, Pray Love (though Lucia doesn’t have to leave the country to find her bliss).

Performance Worth Watching: Belén Rueda is great at calibrating the different versions of Lucia — entirely believable as a stuck up upper-class woman and then later as a reformed school administrator.

Memorable Dialogue: Before departing on a roadtrip to see wedding venues, Pablo’s father Ernesto drives home the fact that he’s incapable of caring for himself: “Do I heat it up in Celsius or Farenheit?,” he asks about the microwave. “The fridge was right here!” he realizes later in the scene.

Sex and Skin: While we don’t see anything explicit, Pablo and Sara do have some loud sex at the cabin that spooks his mother.

Our Take: If this were a film entirely about the friction between a stern mother-in-law and her off-the-beaten-track daughter-in-law, this film would fall flat. There’s hardly any character and relationship development between Pablo and Sara — the only thing we really see is the conflict of the two different worlds they come from, which manifests in their mannerisms and costuming. We also hardly see Lucia and Sara interacting enough to warrant the supposed hatred between them. It’s a story we’ve seen before and ultimately Lucia doesn’t fully embody the evil mother-in-law stereotype aside from nudging the couple towards postponing their wedding.

So it’s great that the film isn’t really about that. The ill-fated romance between Pablo’s mother Lucia and Sara’s father Miguel is a diversion to get to a more interesting story: the reinvention of Lucia. After the affair, Lucia moves out of her big, dreamy apartment and away from the creature comforts that she became so used to (including her uninterested housekeeper and her cold husband), and forces Lucia to finally listen to herself for once. I’m always here for the story of older women finally living life on their own terms, and The Perfect Family allows Lucia to trip over her own feet on her journey to that place.

While there aren’t any star-making performances in the film, Rueda’s warmth makes it easy to root for her even when she’s making bad decisions. And the film is subtly funny, with a few one-liners that provide a chuckle (though I wasn’t necessarily laughing out loud at any point).

This film won’t change the world and it occasionally plays like a Lifetime holiday movie, but it’s enjoyable for those interested in a lighthearted film that may also make you want to book the next flight to Madrid. (Note: Netflix will autoplay this film with an English dub, but I recommend watching in the original Spanish with subtitles in order to get the full effect of the performances and story.)

Will you stream or skip the Spanish film #ThePerfectFamily on @netflix ? #SIOSI — Decider (@decider) May 19, 2022

Our Call: STREAM IT. What starts out as a typical story about a wealthy, disapproving mother-in-law turns into a film about freedom and reinvention.

Radhika Menon ( @menonrad ) is a TV-obsessed writer based in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared on Vulture, Teen Vogue, Paste Magazine and more. At any given moment, she can ruminate at length over Friday Night Lights, the University of Michigan, and the perfect slice of pizza. You may call her Rad.

Is 'The Chosen' Season 4 Available To Stream?

Does 'Yellowstone' Return Tonight? The Latest Updates On 'Yellowstone's Season 5, Part 2 Premiere Date

Maya Rudolph On The Fake ‘Golden Girls’ Remake Poster: “I Just Want To Say For Amy: Whoever Did This, F*** You”

Why Isn't 'The Bachelor' Finale On Hulu?

'The Accountant 2:' Release Date, Plot, and Everything We Know About the Ben Affleck Sequel

Melissa Barrera Speaks Out On “Mean-Spirited” Reception Of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s ‘In The Heights’: “It Was Very Heartbreaking”

Log in or sign up for Rotten Tomatoes

Trouble logging in?

By continuing, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes.

Email not verified

Let's keep in touch.

Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:

• Upcoming Movies and TV shows
• Trivia & Rotten Tomatoes Podcast
• Media News + More

By clicking "Sign Me Up," you are agreeing to receive occasional emails and communications from Fandango Media (Fandango, Vudu, and Rotten Tomatoes) and consenting to Fandango's Privacy Policy and Terms and Policies . Please allow 10 business days for your account to reflect your preferences.

OK, got it!

Movies / TV

No results found.

• What's the Tomatometer®?
• Login/signup

Movies in theaters

• Opening this week
• Top box office
• Coming soon to theaters
• Certified fresh movies

Movies at home

• Netflix streaming
• Prime Video
• Most popular streaming movies
• What to Watch New

Certified fresh picks

• Love Lies Bleeding Link to Love Lies Bleeding
• Problemista Link to Problemista
• Late Night with the Devil Link to Late Night with the Devil

New TV Tonight

• Mary & George: Season 1
• Star Trek: Discovery: Season 5
• Sugar: Season 1
• American Horror Story: Season 12
• Parish: Season 1
• Ripley: Season 1
• Loot: Season 2
• Lopez vs Lopez: Season 2
• The Magic Prank Show With Justin Willman: Season 1

Most Popular TV on RT

• 3 Body Problem: Season 1
• We Were the Lucky Ones: Season 1
• Shōgun: Season 1
• A Gentleman in Moscow: Season 1
• X-Men '97: Season 1
• The Gentlemen: Season 1
• Palm Royale: Season 1
• Invincible: Season 2
• Quiet on Set:The Dark Side of Kids TV: Season 1
• American Rust: Season 2
• Best TV Shows
• Most Popular TV
• TV & Streaming News

Certified fresh pick

• Steve! (martin) a documentary in 2 pieces Link to Steve! (martin) a documentary in 2 pieces
• All-Time Lists
• Binge Guide
• Comics on TV
• Five Favorite Films
• Video Interviews
• Weekend Box Office
• Weekly Ketchup
• What to Watch

Box Office 2024: Top 10 Movies of the Year

MonsterVerse Movies and Series Ranked: Godzilla, Kong, Monarch by Tomatometer

Women’s History

Awards Tour

The Rotten Tomatoes Channel: Watch on Samsung, Roku, And More

The Visibility Dilemma

• Trending on RT
• Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire
• 3 Body Problem
• Play Movie Trivia

The Perfect Family Reviews

The Perfect Family is a simple movie with a far more nuanced direction and final ending point than its premise may first lead you to assume.

Full Review | Original Score: 7.5/10 | Jan 4, 2023

This romantic comedy of broad strokes transforms into an argument for empowerment and the belated pursuit of happiness. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Jun 22, 2022

This film won’t change the world and it occasionally plays like a Lifetime holiday movie, but it’s enjoyable for those interested in a lighthearted film that may also make you want to book the next flight to Madrid.

Full Review | May 20, 2022

A feminist narrative of resilience, empowerment, and deconstruction… [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | May 17, 2022

So tone-deaf and wrong-footed that you’d feel annoyed at the filmmakers, if you weren’t already busy pitying them.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/4 | May 12, 2022

Film Gate Reviews

Movie reviews: Hollywood and Indie, specializing in independent comedies, dramas, thrillers and romance.

Wednesday, May 11, 2022

The perfect family: movie review, similar titles:.