Picture Perfect
Summary
Kate (Jennifer Aniston) is having some problems. It appears the twenty-eight year old is not happy with her slow progression up the company ladder, and her love life apparently leaves something to be desired. She learns that her problems are related, as the owner of her advertising agency, Mr. Mercer (Kevin Dunn), explains to her that her single status does not bode well with the company. Her freedom would make her more likely to leave the company, taking clients with her.
A solution presents itself in Nick (Jay Mohr), a wedding videographer who Kate meets through a coincidence and gets photographed with. Kate's boss, Darcy (Illeana Douglas), uses the photograph to fabricate a wedding engagement between Kate and Nick. Kate is at first repulsed by the idea, but after getting immediate positive results, she pursues it.
Her first task is to convince Nick to go along with her plan. The actual plan consists of Nick pretending to be her fiancé. At a dinner with Kate's bosses he will provoke a fight and they will break up. She meets Nick to propose the plan. He accepts.
Kate's new status brings unexpected results in other areas. The office bad boy, Sam (Kevin Bacon), who wouldn't give Kate the time of day, now does. Now that she is engaged, he pursues an affair with her, as doing so would destroy her good girl image, hence Sam's sudden interest.
Things start to fall apart for Kate, as it becomes apparent that Nick really likes her, and does not wish to break up with her. After some provoking Nick does oblige, but problems continue for Kate. It appears Sam is no longer interested now that she is available. Or maybe Kate does like Nick, but "reconciliation" will force her to admit her lies to her employer. Adding to her mess is the constant prying of her mother (Olympia Dukakis), who wants her to get married and settle down.
Commentary
There is a scene in this movie where Jennifer Aniston is (from the waist up) only wearing a bra. It made me chuckle because it is the only time in the movie when she actually wears one. There is enough cleavage in this movie to satisfy Russ Meyer. It's like the director said 'Well, we know the story is formulaic and the performances aren't that great so, what the heck, let's show Jennifer's assets as often and as uncovered as humanly possible to keep the PG rating." Quite frankly it's insulting.
I don't think Aniston is a competent enough actress to carry a movie. She did a decent enough job in Ed Burns' "She's the One" because it was a smaller and supporting role, and she just doesn't deliver the goods effectively in this movie. Her performance was not convincing.
Unfortunately, as far as romantic comedies go, this movie adds nothing new to the standard formula for these types of movies. The film is similar to "My Best Friends Wedding" in a sense that the leading female character is actually quite vindictive and due her actions, gets no sympathy from me when things go awry. I didn't care for how quickly Kate puts down Nick's profession by explaining that videotaping weddings wasn't glamorous enough for her co-workers. At least "My Best Friends Wedding" changed the formula a bit and had a somewhat surprise ending. No such luck with "Picture Perfect".
Every plot occurrence can be spotted a mile away, including a couple that really made no sense. After everything Kate had done to prove her loyalty to her company, why would she blindly throw it all away when she should have made sure that Nick would even talk to her first, let alone consider a relationship? Was quitting her job a prerequisite to making amends with Nick? Throw in the fact that I don't think Nick and Kate spent enough time together to even warrant that rash of a decision. I believe that Kate liked him, but liked him so intensely that she was willing to throw her career away? I doubt it. And what of the ending scene at a wedding where the entire congregation feels it necessary to stop everything and stare at the couple? Are mass groups of people simultaneously that interested in total strangers? Well, I guess of the congregation consists of movie extras and the strangers are the movies two lead stars, then that would make sense.
Picture Perfect ** (out of five) Directed by Glenn Gordon Caron
Kate........................Jennifer Aniston Nick........................Jay Mohr Sam........................Kevin Bacon Mercer.....................Kevin Dunn Darcy......................Illeana Douglas Rita........................Olympia Dukakis
Written by Randy Turgeon, February 26, 1998. Visit my movie reviews! www.xtdl.com/~canran
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