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The Perez Family Review:
Although its heart is in the right place, this comic drama from director Mira Nair proves, at best, an uneven pleasure. Marisa Tomei overplays, Anjelica Huston underplays, and Alfred Molina is left to carry the picture with his grave eyes and Job-like perseverance. One could pause to reflect that none of these actors is actually Cuban, but a bigger problem is the wildly fluctuating tone. From broad comedy to grown-up restraint to overwrought melodrama, the picture shifts gears so often that the audience may get lost. That said, Robin Swicord's script touches on some powerful ideas about the tension between sustained longing for the past and renewed hope for the future. It also explores the experience of modern immigrants with complementary humor and insight. Rather than dragging such themes kicking and screaming to the top of her agenda, Nair allows them to speak quietly and eloquently for themselves. Along the way, she provides plenty of the lushly beautiful images for which she's known. Neither flawless nor execrable, The Perez Family is simply watchable. But it's perhaps best viewed as a rough draft of Monsoon Wedding, the director's similarly themed 2001 masterpiece. Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide