Picture Perfect

Directed by Glenn Gordon Caron
Running Time: 1:40
Text Version

I must admit that once I again I was biased when I walked into this film. I think Jennifer Aniston is without a doubt one of the most beautiful women in the world today. So of course if she's in a movie, I'm going to see it. Turns out the movie was pretty good. Aniston plays Kate, an ad exec who gets shut out of a major campaign she thought up, because the boss doesn't think she fits the mold. So Kate's friend Darcy (Illeana Douglas) shows the boss a picture of Kate and a guy she says is Kate's fiance. This of course is not true, but it makes the boss happy. Until the guy in the picture becomes famous. Then the trouble starts. On top of all this, Kate wants a "bad boy" at the office named Sam (Kevin Bacon). So to keep the boss happy, and to try and get Sam, Kate brings in the guy in the picture, Nick (Jay Mohr) to act as her fiance, then have a public breaking-up. Well, as you can guess, Nick falls for Kate. Once you get the basic idea of the movie, you can see where it's going. A predictable, if somewhat different plot. So it's up to the characters to make the movie work.

Jennifer Aniston is of course famous from her TV show Friends. Everyone from Friends has now been in a couple of films, and most have not been successful, so all eyes are on Aniston to see if she can make it big in the film business. And biases aside, I think she did a good job. She does what any good actress is supposed to do, and that is control the screen when she's on camera. Her character is one you like, then you hate, then you like again, and she does a good job of making you love and hate her when you're supposed to. Kevin Bacon's character is supposed to be this tough guy who only likes "bad" girls, but he waffles sometimes between being a snake, and being a whiner. I couldn't really get a read on him. And Jay Mohr does a nice job as Nick. Considering the first time I ever saw Mohr was on MTV as a game show host, he's come a long way, and his character is one you feel for. So even though the story is predictable, the characters make up for it. I had a good time at this movie (even with the girls behind me not liking any of Aniston's wardrobe and making sure the rest of the theater knew how they felt).