While I’m normally an unapologetic fan of teen rom coms and will defend even the most mediocre of the genre, there’s very little about The Perfect Date that I found myself really enjoying. It wasn’t necessarily a bad movie, it just never broke away from the cookie cutter mold to stand out in any original way. It hit all the major beats:
- Boy and girl don’t like each other
- Boy and girl become friends while making very clear they’re not dating
- Boy and girl use each other to date someone else
- Boy starts ignoring his friend who gets upset
- Boy and girl fight
- Boy feels all alone
- The people they end up dating turn out to not be so great
- Boy and girl make up and start dating
Now, just because a movie is formulaic doesn’t mean it’s always bad. There are 100 ways to connect the dots from point A to B. Set It Up, which premiered last year on Netflix is the perfect example. We know their scheme will backfire and they’ll end up dating at the end, but it’s such an enjoyable ride that we don’t care. Unfortunately, The Perfect Date takes the shortest route possible between each plot point leaving no room to really develop any significant depth to the characters. There’s a point in the movie where the main character Brooks gets into a fight with his best friend Murph because Brooks is spending too much time with his side business, an app they created for girls to hire him for dates. The reason Brooks is doing it though is to save up money for college which seems like a pretty good reason to hang out less, but it doesn’t really matter because they make up so fast it seems like the only reason it was included was because the writers thought its a rom com so friends have to fight.
There were some good points however. Noah Centinio and Laura Marano had great chemistry as the two leads, which is the most important aspect of any rom com. The fact she declined Brooks’ offer to dance at the end was a nice touch as well. I was expecting a nice, quick perfect ending so that was a pleasant surprise.
Overall, if you’re not doing anything on a Saturday afternoon it’s not a bad movie to have on in the background as you scroll through your phone, but I’d save your Friday night ice cream sessions for something else.
Couch Potato 