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The Perfect Man
USA 2005
Director: Mark Rosman
With Hilary Duff, Heather Locklear, Chris Noth, Mike O'Malley
Certificate PG 100m 24s
Taking Cyrano de Bergerac as its loose inspiration, this romantic comedy plays with notions of truth and deception. The admirer that Holly (Hilary Duff) invents for her mother, Jean, becomes increasingly real as the teenager mimics the characteristics of her friend's uncle, Ben, while penning her fake love letters. In theory, the climax of the film is when real and unreal merge, and the fictional Ben is swallowed up by his flesh-and-blood inspiration. But the film delays this climax to a frustrating degree, filling most of its running time with unlikely details of Holly's deception.
Potential romance is also made improbable by Ben's character. Asked how he would woo a woman, he unleashes a barrage of trite flatteries that impresses both daughter and - via email - mother to an unfeasible degree. The initial presentation of Holly as someone who can spot an unsuitable man at ten paces, is challenged by her naive acceptance of Ben's brand of greetings-card romance. As with his 2004 feature A Cinderella Story, also starring Duff, Mark Rosman presents stereotypical characters who morph only to fit in with the demands of the plot: Holly's love interest, Adam, merely pops up when he's needed to propel the story forward, and appears to have no friends of his own.
For a film that is supposed to be about communication - Holly's use of a blog and email contrasting with Ben's old-fashioned ideas - there is very little going on between its characters. Unable to confront her mother about her choice of boyfriends, the otherwise forthright Holly chooses painstakingly elaborate...