Picture Perfect (DVD)

...help her out, produces a picture of Kate with Nick, a young man she met at a wedding recently, and tells their boss that this is Kate's fiance!

Despite the fact that Kate has a lot of misgivings about this, the lie boosts her position in the company so she can't really complain. And, of course, the unrequited-love of her life, Sam, suddenly begins to show an interest the second he realises she is "attached". So she decides ...
...off to her colleagues, then stage a public "dumping".

However, what Kate has not counted on is Nick (Jay Mohr playing a non-seedy character for a change!) becoming a hero overnight. She approaches him to ask if she can "hire" him to be her fiance for a short period of time, but he rejects her money and says he is perfectly happy to do it for free.

You would think most people would think, at this point, ... more

This film got a bit of a slating when it was released, and even Jennifer Aniston now says she regrets starring in it. I'm not entirely sure why. I mean it's not the most groundbreaking film in the world and it IS a little cheesy but, as far as lighthearted comedies go, it is fairly entertaining.

Jennifer Aniston (in her first lead role outside Friends) plays Kate, an advertising exec with a personality not unlike that of Rachel Green's (only less spoilt and with a worse sense of style - in this film she seems to favour micro-mini skirts and, at one point, green tights!!!). Kate is extremely good at her job but is constantly overlooked in favour of other colleagues. When she finally decides to confront her boss over this, he basically tells her she is too independent. She has no relationship and mortgage, she still lives like a student. Therefore, he does not trust her to stay with the company because she does not OWE them anything.

This is unfair, sure, but you can sort of see his point. As he says, there is nothing to stop her heading off to a rival company and taking all the best clients with her. However is it slightly unrealistic to assume that none of her colleagues would do the same, purely because they have a mortgage to pay and a family to support? Surely if they were offered more money elsewhere, they would have even more reason to jump at the chance? But, whether this is true or not, it is because of this assumption of her boss that the story begins to unfold.

For Kate's friend (Ileana Douglas) to help her out, produces a picture of Kate with Nick, a young man she met at a wedding recently, and tells their boss that this is Kate's fiance!

Despite the fact that Kate has a lot of misgivings about this, the lie boosts her position in the company so she can't really complain. And, of course, the unrequited-love of her life, Sam, suddenly begins to show an interest the second he realises she is "attached". So she decides to get Nick involved personally in the plan, show him off to her colleagues, then stage a public "dumping".

However, what Kate has not counted on is Nick (Jay Mohr playing a non-seedy character for a change!) becoming a hero overnight. She approaches him to ask if she can "hire" him to be her fiance for a short period of time, but he rejects her money and says he is perfectly happy to do it for free.

You would think most people would think, at this point, "hmmmm, maybe he likes me!" Oh, but not Kate! She doesn't seem to realise at all. Oh, how I would love to slap her. Why are film characters always so stupid? (Perhaps because there would be no point of the film otherwise? Oh, who knows!)

Things, as always, don't go to plan and Kate ends up having to decide what is more important to her - her career in the company or a guy she barely knows. You KNOW there's gotta be a happy ending emerging from it, but its unclear how it's actually going to be reached.

If I had to classify this film, I would call it a romantic comedy. It's more romantic than comic but it has its moments of hilarity (I particularly like the dumping scene myself). Jennifer plays her part well and is all in all a very likeable character who its easy to identify with. Mohr puts in a surprisingly believable performance as the male romantic lead and Kevin Bacon is ideal as the charming asshole Sam. Other good performances come from Olympia Dukakis as Kate's neurotic mother (certainly made ME glad my mother is relatively normal!) and Ileana Douglas who, as Kate's sensible friend, basically makes Kate's character seem even stranger.

If you have not seen this film yet (it has been shown on terrestial tv once or twice already so there has been quite a lot of opportunity) I would recommend you do - well, if you like lighthearted rom-coms. If you don't, it's probably not for you. But if you enjoyed "My Best Friend's Wedding" or "The Object of My Affection" I am sure you would enjoy this movie also! If nothing else, you can gasp in horror at the length of Aniston's skirts, particularly the scene where it looks like she has actually forgotten to put one on!

 

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