PICTURE PERFECT

SYNOPSIS:
Jennifer Aniston plays an ambitious ad executive who can't find a guy (oh yeah, right), but for some strange reason is in lust with fellow worker Kevin Bacon, who loves to fool around with taken women, you know, engaged or married types. Jen's mother (Olympia Dukakis) is at her wit's end. Then suddenly, her best friend creates a guy for her to help gain a promotion and respect in the workplace. The guy (Jay Mohr) does exist - she met him briefly at an Indian wedding - and suddenly, when he appears in the paper for some heroic deed, she persuades him to come back to New York, meet her co-workers, pretend to break up, and they'll go their separate ways. Naturally, things don't go according to plan and, well, you know the rest.

"Lightweight in the feel-good romantic comedy stakes, Picture Perfect is one of those films with a toe-tapping contempo soundtrack that is pretty to look at and mindlessly enjoyable to watch, but falls short of anything more. While the concept has some merit and chuckle value, it lacks any sense of reality, and basically reeks of being contrived. Jennifer Aniston, with her beguiling personality, has built up a great TV following, and she shows good comedic sense of timing. While her performance is engagingly effervescent, her emotional range is somewhat limited, her character remaining totally artificial. We get to admire her from all angles, and yes, she looks great. Her outfits, all low-cut with very short skirts, range from cute trendy to Audrey Hepburn sleek. The notion of a star vehicle obviously was appealing, but over-kill, with Aniston in every scene, becomes a heavy cross to bear. Kevin Bacon is terrific as Sam, who lusts after but can’t commit to women. There’s real movie magic in his scenes, and he generates scintillating chemistry with Aniston. By contrast, Jay Mohr, a weak link as Mr Wonderful, is unconvincing and as bland as undercooked, sugar-free porridge; Olympia Dukakis’ cameo as the hysterical manipulative mum is entertainingly over the top. Check out the scene when Aniston and Mohr rehearse their ‘break-up’; the restaurant scene, while totally contrived, is quite a hoot. If you believe all you see in the movies, advertising execs are on a par with lawyers… Pretty pictures? yes; perfect? no."
Louise Keller