The Perfect Man Review

A young girl tries to stop her mother dating losers and boost her confidence by inventing a secret admirer.

by William Thomas |
Published on
Release Date:

19 Aug 2005

Running Time:

100 minutes

Certificate:

PG

Original Title:

Perfect Man, The

That Heather Locklear can't find a half-decent man is the first of many unlikely situations proposed by this romantic comedy. It also posits that her character Jean’s teenage daughter Holly (Duff) would spend hours creating the 'perfect man' to woo her mother via flowers, emails and phone calls.

Holly’s unwitting inspiration is her friend’s uncle, Ben (Noth), who specialises in appallingly soppy one-liners that both women are stupid enough to fall for. Were Ben a genuinely appealing character and introduced to Jean earlier in the film, this might at least have romance on its side. But the lazy structure — which focuses on Duff’s matchmaking pranks to tedious effect — does nothing to add interest to the frankly creepy prospect of a daughter playing Cyrano de Bergerac to her own mother.

The occasional one-liner is wasted amid a sea of clichés and preposterous situations in this Duff vehicle that forgot to put the romance in romantic comedy.

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