How do you raise your children when the whole world is watching? There’s no one more critical of parents than other parents and in an age when every step of childhood is shared with a worldwide audience, the pressure to raise a flawless brood can be unbearable. Veteran Quebécois helmer Ricardo Trogi doesn’t exactly deliver on the promises in the the title of his latest film, The Guide to the Perfect Family, but he at least manages to raise a few questions and perhaps inspire a few conversations.
Workaholic Martin Dubois (Louis Morissette) has his hands full with the triple threat of a demanding corporate culture, a fractured home life starring his rambunctious son Mathis (Xavier Lebel) and frazzled wife Marie (Catherine Chabot), and maintaining a tenuous relationship with his teenage daughter from a previous marriage, Rose (Émilie Bierre). Rose has been oscillating between her Dad’s overachieving expectations for her future and the carefree stylings of her mostly absentee mother (Isabelle Guérard). When Rose finally starts to crack under pressure and Marie begins to lose faith in her own helicopter parenting, Martin has to revaluate his priorities in order to keep both his families from falling apart.
Trogi has constructed a solid family drama that smartly sets its tone from the get-go (the opening parent-teacher conference is equal parts hilarious and unsettling). Morissette carries the weight of his character’s backstory with him as the years of uneven work-and-family balance have taken their toll. Chabot registers well as a woman trying to be the perfect mother and wife while neglecting her own needs while Bierre makes Rose memorable, if not particularly endearing.
The film puts plenty of cards about modern child-rearing on the table as Martin’s more structured parenting style is contrasted against the grass-fed hippie ways of his brother Stéphane (Alexandre Goyette) and his family. Meanwhile, the patriarch of the Dubois clan (Gilles Renaud) huffs in exasperation. Isn’t putting food on the table and keeping a roof over your family’s head enough? The devil really is in the details.
As capably as the pins are set up though, the film slips sideways into a rather convenient and predictable finale that leaves the film ending on a weaker note than it otherwise could have. I won’t spoil the offending(?) plot point here, but trust me, you’ll know it (and roll your eyes appropriately) when you see it. The film does its job well enough but fails to stand out as essential viewing unless you’re short on your Québec cinema quota (I sure have been).
Perfect Family is more parental than family viewing. It serves less as a guide and more of a reminder to keep our bearings and prioritize those closest to us. In the end, there really is no perfect family, is there? Only mass-market and social media-fuelled illusions of one.
7/10
The Guide to the Perfect Family is now streaming on Netflix Canada