Picture Perfect (1997)

You won't be disappointed!

So much average

Simply Perfect

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Picture Perfect is really cute. If you haven't seen it, rent it during your next haul of 90s romantic comedies, an already extinct but immortalized genre. Jennifer Aniston, during her FRIENDS reign, made a few movies on the side in hopes of having a career after television. In Picture Perfect, she's absolutely adorable, making what might have been an unlikable character on paper easy to root for. She plays a career woman, eager to advance to the next corporate ladder rung. Her boss tells her she has no motivation, such as a husband, family, home. A little lie and a picture of her and a stranger—boom! She gets a fictional fiancé and a promotion. But what happens when the fictional fiancé shows up, and she's already falling in love with someone else? Seriously, can anyone really compete with Kevin Bacon and his famous strut? This movie is full of laughs, and one of the most hilarious mother-daughter on screen pairings. Go rent it, either with your girlfriends or with your mother. You'll love it.

"Kate" (Jennifer Aniston) is a young, single and promising employee of an advertising company who is held back because the boss, "Mr. Mercer" (Kevin Dunn) doesn't believe that her current life situation is stable enough to keep her fully committed to working at the firm. So to counter that perception her best friend, "Darcy" (Illeana Douglas) convinces Mr. Mercer that she is engaged to a man by the name of "Nick" (Jay Mohr) even though Kate barely knows him. This immediately prompts Mr. Mercer to invite Kate and Nick to dinner in order to get to know him. To make matters even more complicated, the person she has a crush on named "Sam" (Kevin Bacon) is not interested in her at all—until he hears that she is engaged to Nick. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was a rather tepid rom-com which suffered from predictability and a sparse amount of humor. That being said, I have rated this film accordingly. Average.

Glenn Gordon Caron has good form with romantic comedy caper type films as creator of the television series, Moonlighting. In Picture Perfect Jennifer Aniston is Kate working in an ad agency with a thing for work colleague Kevin Bacon, who only goes out for women with commitments such as being married in order to avoid commitments himself.One day Kate's friend tells everyone at the office that Kate is engaged to Jay Mohr in order to get promotion at work. Jay is a photographer she met earlier at a wedding and now she needs to convince him to pretend to be her fiancé.Over time Jay falls for her although once she is seen to be attached Kevin Bacon finally makes a mover for her.There is a horrible odour of deceit in the plotting of this film. Both Bacon and Aniston play nasty, self centred people with only Jay Mohr playing a decent character and he is the only one who uplifts the film thanks to the actors subtle and sincere performance.

I'm pretty sure that the title was created before the plot, because the plot is a bit forced. Kate (Jennifer Aniston) works in advertising but can't really progress in her job because everybody else has a nice stable marriage and a house of their own, and she's unlucky in love and still staying with her mother. Her good girl image is also a turn off for her sexy adulterous boss, Sam (Kevin Bacon). So when a friend sees a photo of her taken at a friend's wedding with a friend of the groom's, she concludes that the two are a couple. Kate then invents a fictitious engagement to the man, Nick, (Jay Mohr)who she had never met before the wedding. It impresses her colleagues and bags her Sam. Kate pays Nick to pose as her fictitious man but her plan gets screwed up a little when he falls in love with her.I know that the advertising industry might be concerned with the 'image' of employees but I doubt that they would imply that being single and living with your mother meant that you had no career path. I'm pretty sure that you could sue for the implication that your love life and where you live prevents you from promotion. Anyway, the opposite tends to be true- the married couples are likely to leave and have children. Also, Kate must earn enough to get her own flat and surely if she's worked up to a good position in the company, she's got a bit of independence and drive? She seems to have quite a few psychological issues.Jennifer Aniston acquits herself well in a movie that probably is just a vehicle for her. Though if you don't think much of her, this film probably won't change your opinion. Kevin Bacon is actually quite good as Sam- and he makes a nice bit of eye candy, of course (though the hair is BAD). Jay Mohr doesn't have that much to do but he plays the cardboard cut-out nice guy quite sweetly.As I said previously, the plot has holes but in formulaic rom-coms this is sort of expected. However the comedy in this film is intermittent. It starts off as lightly amusing but this is abandoned for a more serious romantic tone (it's rather depressing in places as well), which spoils the fun a little, seeing as both Bacon and Aniston show that they could have handled a rom-com script. The soundtrack/score is pretty dull and a bit dated as well.If you're in the mood for a soppy non-taxing romance, this would do the job, and if you like the leading actors, it's worth a watch. If you like Maid in Manhatten, you'll probably like this as well (probably more). But if you're looking for a light rom-com, you might be disappointed.