Movie Info

RATING:

PG for some mildly suggestive content

RELEASE:

June 17, 2005

DVD RELEASE:

Nov. 1, 2005

GENRE:

Comedy, Romance

STARRING:

Hilary Duff, Heather Locklear, Aria Wallace, Chris Noth, Caroline Rhea

DIRECTOR:

Mark Rosman

DISTRIBUTOR:

Universal Pictures

 

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MOVIE REVIEW

The Perfect Man

By Elliott Ryan
Guest Reviewer

What's This?

CBN.com – One of the most important lessons Hollywood has taught me in recent years is that children are almost always smarter than their parents. Adults, according to countless cute movies starring precocious child actors, are stupid. They can easily be outwitted by the very children they are raising. Take for example The Perfect Man starring Heather Locklear and Hilary Duff.

Jean, played by Locklear (Looney Tunes: Back in Action, Uptown Girls) is the mother of two daughters, one a teenager, Holly (played by Duff), and the other about eight years old. Jean has been ruining not only her life but also the lives of her daughters by constantly running away from her problems. She is desperate to get married so she won’t end up alone. Her desperation causes her to date less than savory characters. Every time one of these relationships ends, (and they always do) mom packs up her family and all of their worldly possessions and moves to a completely different state to start over.

She doesn’t realize that this is causing her daughters pain. She doesn’t notice that they aren’t making friends or getting involved in school activities because there is no point in doing so when they will just have to move again soon. She seems completely oblivious to the fact that her own life never amounts to much because it is just a series of new starts that never lead to anything.

Fortunately for her, Holly, her oldest daughter, does realize what is going on. And she sets out to put a stop to it. While I won’t go into great detail so as not to spoil the plot, the plan to fix the situation involves Duff’s character deceiving and manipulating her mother and several other characters.

This movie is supposed to be aimed mainly at teenage and pre-teen girls. They would probably find the story to be cute. There are several humorous scenes. I am not a member of the target audience and yet I couldn’t help laughing out loud a few times. And Holly really is trying to fix things for her family even though it is in an extremely misguided way.

The problem is that many parents would be too offended by the contents of this movie to allow their children to view it. The most glaring affront is the inclusion of a homosexual character whose sole purpose is to inject humor into the proceedings. But it isn’t a type of humor that would entertain most Christians. And certainly isn’t appropriate for their young children. While there is no actual homosexual behavior displayed, the character (played by Carson Kressley from TV’s Queer Eye for the Straight Guy) makes it clear that, like Holly’s mom, he too is looking for the perfect man. This and several more adult references (although there isn’t much actual profanity) make this movie unsuitable for family audiences.

Yet, that is exactly who the advertising campaign is targeting. Teens and preteens who are fans of Duff’s work will probably attend this movie in droves. Perhaps their parents should be a bit more cautious about what they send their girls out to watch.

The movie does redeem itself somewhat in the end, teaching a valuable lesson for both Holly and her mother, so the movie is not terrible. It just isn’t that great either. I think even most teenage girls who watch it will be smart enough to realize that. I just hope their parents are even smarter and find some other way to entertain their families.