Wealthy socialite Charlotte Cartwright and her dear friend Alice Pratt, a working class woman of high ideals, have enjoyed a lasting friendship throughout several decades. Recently, their lives have become mired in turmoil as their adult children’s extramarital affairs, unethical business practices, and a dark secret threaten to derail family fortunes and unravel the lives of all involved. Charlotte and Alice decide to take a breather from it all by making a cross-country road trip in which they rediscover themselves and possibly find a way to save their families from ruin.
This snail-paced film might as well take place in the 1950s, since it seems to have been inspired by one those Hollywood melodramas in which one company employs the entire town, and the only places free of corruption are the church and the local diner.
– Chuck Wilson,
L.A. Weekly,
18 Sep 2008
rotten:
While it's wonderful to see actresses as shamefully underemployed as Woodard and Bates on the big screen, even they can't make sense of [these] incoherent characters.
– Sam Adams,
AV Club,
15 Sep 2008
rotten:
The Family that Preys shows grand advances in the filmmaking education of playwright-turned-filmmaker Tyler Perry. It's also his soapiest film yet, an overwrought melodrama of sibling rivalry, infidelity, family business power plays and terminal illness.
– Roger Moore,
Orlando Sentinel,
15 Sep 2008
fresh:
By far the best thing about the enterprise is Woodard. If she's not in this thing, I think it goes kaput.
– Neely Tucker,
Washington Post,
15 Sep 2008
fresh:
The film takes off when Woodard's and Bates' characters go on a Thelma & Louise-style road trip.