The Perfect Date
Director: Chris Nelson
Writer: Steve Bloom, Randall Green
Based on: Steve Bloom’s novel The Stand-In
Cast: Noah Centineo, Laura Marano, Odiseas Georgiadis, Camila Mendes, Matt Walsh, Joe Chrest, Carrie Lazar
Seen on: 13.4.2019
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Plot:
Brooks (Noah Centineo) is hoping to get into the university of his dreams – and that costs money. Fortunately for Brooks an opportunity arises for him in the form of Celia (Laura Marano) who is in need of a date and willing to pay cash. Brooks accepts and on his fake date with Celia, he meets Shelby (Camila Mendes) and falls for her head over heels. Brooks decides to make the fakedating a business, turning into a date for hire, becoming whatever the girls who hire him need him to be. At the same time, he and Celia hatch a plan to win Shelby over and get Celia the guy of her dreams as well by making both of them jealous. But of course, things get complicated.

The Perfect Date is exactly what you’d expect it to be, a super-fluffy, super-light, super-predictable RomCom. If you’re looking for a bit of comfortable romance, it will give you what you want.

The Perfect Date is funny and touching, hitting all the spots you expect it to hit. With Centineo in the lead role, a standard plot is everything you need to get the results you want – that dude simply oozes charm in every frame. Since the film barely invests any time in other characters apart from Brooks, this charm is definitely very necessary.

The film does feel a little different in that it’s Brooks who doesn’t know who he is and what he wants and not Celia. Without having made a study of it, it feels like it’s usually more the girls in these films who have to learn a lesson before getting the boys of their dreams than the other way round. (Of course, a movie where a high school girl would turn herself into an escort and still remain the romantic lead seems almost unthinkable.)

The Perfect Date is a kind of cotton candy film: it’s sugar spun around nothing and won’t still any hunger, but sometimes nothing is better than a bit of cotton candy to satisfy your sweet tooth.

Summarizing: very cute.