Picture Perfect (1997)

Strong and Moving!

Must See Movie...

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Picture Perfect (1997): Dir: Glenn Gordon Caron / Cast: Jennifer Aniston, Jay Mohr, Kevin Bacon, Olympia Dukakis, Kevin Dunn: Romantic comedy about expectations fooled by false representations of self. It stars Jennifer Aniston as an advertising executive who invents the picture perfect date in order to advance her career. She pays Jay Mohr to have dinner with her and her co-workers. She has everything figured out right down to how they act and know about each other. Mohr obviously doesn't want to follow the plan. Standard formula romance that is never given justice. Director Glenn Gordon Caron does his best with its lavish settings but the performances are at the mercy of the material. Aniston is hardly sympathetic. Mohr is introduced as a local hero who is schemed into this idiocy by Aniston. He falls for her and she sabotages him. Kevin Bacon plays a co-worker whom she has an affair with. Olympia Dukakis is also featured as if it matters. Kevin Dunn plays Aniston's boss whose role is to predictably to discredit her. It could have demonstrated how selfish ambition can damage reputations but instead it is subdued in sitcom romantic clichés that water down any meaning. It is not funny to see a reputation of an honest person get damaged while some bimbo seeks to progress through the situation with higher job status. The screenplay is far from perfect. Score: 3 ½ / 10

Coming to this movie with an open mind… and with a wife who is rather partial to anything soppy and romantic! - knew I was in for one of those 'bog-standard' americanized ham-fisted attempts at romantic comedy… and in that respect I wasn't disappointed.I have never been over-awed with Jennifer Aniston - yes, I don't deny she is attractive and appealing - but her on-screen performances always leave me non-plussed; she is invariably agreeable and wants to be 'likeable' and maybe it is that "desire to please" that I find objectionable? in the end her performance is "woolly" as she blends in to the 'public consensus of moral opinion and social atmosphere' of the day.In terms of that 'social atmosphere' this movie is very much a reflection of American values - or lack thereof; permissive attitudes, selfishness disguised by ingratiation, and capitalistic corporate obeisance.As is so often the case (with American movies), they just do not get subtlety, nuance - or comedy for that; this movie resembles - or tries to emulate - the great British romantic comedies such as Four Weddings… except without the charm, class, appeal, pace, sympathetic characters, attractive setting - or comedic relief!No wonder I was only watching this because it was part of a multi-movie compilation DVD.and sorry Jen - I much prefer ANY Sandra Bullock movie.

I was going to give this movie a 6 but I thought the end was so well done that I gave it that one extra point. As a movie as a whole there isn't much that stands out from other movies, but I thought that the ending was cool and it was that which stuck in my mind.Basically the movie is about a girl who wants to get ahead but seems to be too picky about her men. As such, the good jobs are out of reach and the guy she likes is not interested because she is not married. So, when people see a photo of her sitting on a man's lap, she seizes upon the opportunity to say that he is her fiancé. Things start to turn around, until they decide to meet him, so she tries to arrange with him to break off their relationship, but unfortunately he falls in love with her, and she realises that he is actually quite a nice guy.I guess there are a couple of things that stick out here. The main thing is in regards to what the boss says at the beginning of the movie. Basically the company is only interested in promoting you if you are a safe investment - namely you will not run off to another company because they give you a better offer, so what they do is encourage you to marry, buy an expensive house and an expensive car, so that you are such in debt that you need to keep the job.It seems more a safeguard for the corporation than for the person involved, because if they stuff up badly then they loose their job and are in deep thickets because they are no longer on such a great income. I guess it also says that a little white lie to get ahead is okay, but in reality it is not. Once one begins to live a lie, or get trapped in a fantasy world, then when reality hits home, you cannot handle it.This movie is okay, and the ending is great, but unfortunately some of the moralistic overtones simply suck.

An Aniston vehicle, released at the very height of Friends' success on telly. It's a sunny, back-to-front romcom after Green Card, for example, in which Kate (Aniston) uses a guy she meets at a wedding to advance her career. Like most men on the planet, Jay Mohr's Nick can't simply play the attendant fiancé though and the complications bring things to a head, nicely resolved in one of the least likely, contrived, wedding-themed conclusions I've seen in this kind of flick. Mad.Illeana Douglas and Kevin Douglas are the stalwart, bankable support and Mohr is capably riding the surf of being the chief antagonist of predecessor Jerry Maguire. The film is all about Aniston though. She's a good actress giving the flimsy conceit some body. Speaking of body, she's also sufficiently aware of her own appeal to wear a second-act dress a size too small, as well as no bra in the denouement. Oh and Kevin Bacon's in it too. As I say, mad. 3/10