Perfect Opposites (2004)

Excellent but underrated film

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Centering around a fresh out of college couple, this story of two young lovers begins with how they met at school, moved in together, and all the happenings before, during and after.With Martin Henderson leading and narrating the film, you see generally only his perspective of the story. Piper Perabo, plays his girlfriend, and true love. Although the film can be a bit slow at times, and a little silly...it does have some very funny situations and moments.I enjoyed it, and will probably see it in the future as well. It's not the best film out there, but for the budget they probably filmed it with, and the locations and actors, it's really not bad at all.A light romantic comedy, which is probably best suited for either a lonely Friday night at home, or a good date movie.

this story which revolves around Martin Henderson and Piper Perabo's characters Julia and Drew is about two college students who fall in love. Right before graduation they fall helplessly in love and they decide to move to Hollywood to start Drew's career. While Julia is completely in love with Drew she begins to regret putting her life on hold for him. The story then centers around whether or not they should break up. Overall the film does have a predictable plot but Henderson and Perabo have great chemistry which makes the movie worth watching at least once. This straight to video romantic comedy is good to watch with you spouse or special someone but don't expect to watch a great romance classic.

In "Perfect Opposites," Drew and Julia, two college grads from "a school in the Midwest," decide to head to L.A. to start life together as a committed couple (not much of a move, as it turns out, since the college scenes were actually filmed at USC). However, in no time at all, the pressures of trying to establish their careers, combined with Drew's innate fear of commitment, end up putting a serious strain on the relationship."Perfect Opposites" is a fairly conventional romantic comedy that does at least offer a few flashes of insight into the complexities of man/woman relationships, even though the motivations for some of the characters' actions are strangely arbitrary and inscrutable at times. Nevertheless, as the complications arise, we find ourselves identifying with the two main characters more than we expect to at the beginning of the story. Unfortunately, the film insists on parading a bunch of cutesy L.A. stereotypes before the camera, severely undercutting the sense of reality it establishes in the scenes between Julia and Drew. There is one very funny scene in which Drew's old college roommate lays out his theory about where men and women fit in the evolutionary scheme of things, but the film doesn't achieve that level of comic cleverness very often.As Drew and Julia, Martin Henderson and Piper Perabo make an attractive, likable couple, and the secondary performers do what they can with the characters they've been handed."Perfect Opposites" is a hard film to call because it feels both artificial and realistic in roughly equal measure. It takes a slightly more mature view of the world than most films of its type, building to a final scene that is a tad more thoughtful than what we are accustomed to in a romantic comedy. For that reason alone it deserves some recognition.

I loved this movie! Usually these test screenings are painful for me because I am a critical person. This movie worked for me on so many levels-chiefly the casting was flawless and their performances hugely satisfying. What is most surprising is that the movie succeeds in creating that old fashioned romantic comedy where the leads are true 'movie stars'. You love them because they have charisma, screen presence and chemistry and you simply can't look away! In these movies, the supporting players are true character actors that, due to the generosity of the leads, steal every bit scene they're in. It's been years since a romantic comedy has had any success or appeal to me. Usually these are tortured films with post-Freudian/post-modern angst attempting to re-invent the genre by making the leads as unattractive and neurotic as filmmakers think audiences can relate to. "Love and Sex" is a case on point of the nadir post-whatever romantic comedy. This film stars the improbable coupling of the ex-bond girl/Woody Allen alum/model Famke Jansen struggling to be modern in NYC and having a warm and fuzzy time with Jon Favreau the once favorite anti-movie star. Or "Happy Accidents" the Marisa Tomei-Vincent D'onofrio romantic comedy which suffers from and even greater desperate need to attenuate the genre by making its lead a space alien without having watched the wonderful "Starman" with Jeff Bridges for pointers. These and others like them represent the soulless grasping of clueless filmmakers trying to re- invent the wheel only to end up with a sloppy, narcissistic acting exercises on tape.It seems to me that these "quirky" indie romances have a chip on their shoulder; as if they had been backed up into an angry corner, screaming their head off. Their look and style is usually suffocating and claustrophobic. I found "Piece of my Heart" refreshing and familiar, the way old fashioned movies with their movie stars and predictable formulas always promised a good time, a true escape. At the screening there were a group of fourteen year old girls. The film had been an obvious success with them and someone commented that they were the true audience of this film. I disagree. I have sat through films designed for this demographic, replete with ribald fart jokes and enough stupidity and insincerity to last them through High School. " A Piece of my Heart" is too sincere and guileless too do that. It succeeds despite the obstacles of a jaded 'post-modern' audience because it truly has the elusive ingredient that love stories (no matter when) have always reached for-Chemistry!And yet, as old fashioned as it seems it has such verve and modern flair. The characters are totally contemporary. The look is a fun kaleidoscope of LA living. The editing has all the wit and modern vernacular youth culture has come to expect and love. All that is no simple achievement in my estimation. What comes through is true movie magic!