Director: Mark Rosman
Genre: Comedy, Family, Romance
Rating: D
Is there such thing as a good Hilary Duff movie? I’ve watched a good many of her movies and I
usually enjoy them. The acting’s not
great and the story’s not great, but it’s fun and there’s usually good (albeit
pop-y) music. The Perfect Man, however doesn’t really meet those standards. The acting isn’t good, the story isn’t good,
it isn’t overly fun, and the music… the soundtrack has four Styx songs. This should be a life lesson: if the soundtrack
of a movie depends heavily on Styx don’t see it. It’s probably not worth it.
Jean (Locklear) is pretty much a serial monogamous. She enters into relationships with questionable
men then, when things don’t work out, she picks up her life and moves. While this semi-nomadic life appears to work
for her, it does not work for her two daughters, Holly (Duff) and Zoe (Aria
Wallace), who both long for stability.
Once settled in their newest home Holly devises a plan with new friend
Amy (Lengies) to essentially trick her mother into staying. Using the wisdom of Amy’s Uncle Ben (Noth)
Holly creates a fictional admirer for her mother, so that they won’t enter into
the usual pattern. Hijinks ensue as Holly
must work to keep her mother from meeting the real Ben and dissuade Jean from
considering the many advances of co-worker and Styx fan, Lenny (O’Malley). Throughout all of this, she also meets a cute
boy (Feldman) who shows interest in her, and must deal with her feelings for
him in competition with her fear of getting too attached to one place. Oh, and she comes to determine that the real
Ben is perfect for her mother, despite the fact that he appears to be engaged
to another woman.
Even by the standards of your typical Hilary Duff movie, this is a
pretty bad movie. The plot is ludicrous
and one has to question just how Holly is capable of keeping all her lies
straight (there are a few moments when it really seems like if Jean was in any
way intelligent she would be able to figure out that ‘Ben’ was fake). You also have to question the believability
of Locklear as a woman with the kind of dating history that she has. I have no problem buying her as a serial
monogamous or regularly in bad relationships.
She really seems more of the type to date the hot douche (in line with the
kind of men that Locklear seems to date in reality) and not the bumbling
idiot. There’s also no real explanation
for why some of the men that she dates are so horrible. Yes, Lenny is a Styx fan and that’s
questionable in itself, but despite the fact that he’s not really the brightest
and doesn’t have the best taste he actually seems like he’s a pretty good
guy. In the land of a Duff movie,
though, balding Styx fans are not respectable potential step-fathers. Oh, also, as the film is set in… some part of
New York where the accents are particularly horrendous, this movie also
features Canadian actors with really bad fake New York accents. Between the accents and the music, it is highly
likely that this film might make your ears bleed.
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