Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that the movie is premised on the idea that a daughter lies to her mother, an ostensible shortcut to making them both feel better. After she first makes up "the perfect man," Holly finds she has to continue the lies, to the point that she and her mother exchange emails, with Holly posing as the idealized lover; this makes for some sweet conversations about dreams and goals, but also an awkward situation for adults in the audience, as parent and child are, after all, flirting. The movie includes briefly strained family relationships, as mother and daughter argue, and mother tells the story of the daughter's missing father (though she oddly never discusses the birth circumstances of a second, seven-year-old daughter). The movie also includes repeated references to sexual desire and play, primarily in the form of a gay bartender who makes wisecracks about various men. There are also jokes about breasts and 5th graders losing their virginity.
Families who see this movie can discuss the difficult relationship between mother and child, as each wants to support the other, but neither is able to speak openly at first. How might open communication about basic concerns (daughter's upset by the family's repeated moves, mother's worry about being single) resolve tensions between them? How does the Internet/email both allow communication and limit it? How does the daughter's budding romance complicate her concerns for her mother and sister's well-being?
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Cynthia Fuchs
A mostly lighthearted comedy that also deals with serious issues, THE PERFECT MAN resembles previous Hilary Duff movies in tone and resolution. Essentially a double-layered romantic comedy, it centers on a 16-year-old in search of stability and love. Holly (Duff) worries that her mother, a baker named Jean (Heather Locklear), keeps moving their family from place to place. These moves result from romantic breakups; apparently, mom only dates louses and cheats, whom she then must escape by literally running away, blithe Holly and her seven-year-old sister Zoe (Aria Wallace) in tow.
When they move to New York City at the start of the film, Holly devises a plan to keep her mother distracted and the family in place, at least for a little while: she invents a "perfect man," based in part on romantic advice she solicits from Ben (Chris Noth), a handsome, exceedingly pleasant restaurateur who also happens to be the uncle to her new best friend Amy (Vanessa Lengies). Soon Holly is sending her mom flowers and writing her letters from the made up "Ben," in order to distract her from another potential paramour, a lumpy, well-meaning Styx fan and bread-baker named Lenny (Mike O'Malley).
To grant Holly some space to express herself, the movie uses the Internet: she keeps a blog (called "Girl on the Move") and starts writing emails to Jean, supposedly from "Ben." This leads to a partly comic, partly strange situation where she's essentially flirting with her mother. While kids won't likely think much of this, the visualization of the idea -- mother and daughter at their computer screens, writing romantic notes to one another -- is at least odd.
The situation is exacerbated when Jean finds out that Holly is having her own romantic troubles with a nice boy and comic book artist named Adam (Ben Feldman), and writes him emails while pretending to be Holly. The mixed-up identities are eventually sorted out, of course, but not before some difficulties arise and both Jean and Holly endure some sadness and disappointment in one another.
Families who enjoy this movie will also like other Hilary Duff movies, such as A Cinderella Story and The Lizzie McGuire Movie. They might also watch other mother-daughter-focused movies, including both Freaky Fridays (2003, with Lindsay Lohan, and 1976, with Jodie Foster).
Rate It!
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Sexual ContentMale bartender flirts with men. Jokes about breasts and 5th graders losing their virginity. |
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Social BehaviorDaughter lies to her mother throughout, learns a lesson. |
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CommercialismFocus on restaurant business; Mac computers figure prominently. |
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