A Escolha Perfeita

It begins and ends with the letter grade. The grade I ultimately give a movie, emblazoned as a graphic on the movie poster, is the first thing people see when they come across one of my reviews on the internet – and it's almost always the last thing at the end of my written reviews. I make mental notes for my review as I'm watching a film, but the grade is something else altogether. It's like a bottle in the ocean, bobbing up and down, and carried by the tide, before eventually coming to rest on some beach where it will remain, unchanging and unmoved, for all to see. (Unless, of course, some knucklehead runs off with it or breaks it and ruins my whole analogy.) Usually that grade, once it starts to become visible about 1/3 of the way through a movie, stays roughly in the same area and eventually lands not far from where it started. But sometimes, that grade first comes into view at a very low tide and then a rather large wave lifts it surprisingly high until it settles onto some sort of middle ground – probably between a rock and a hard place. That was what happened when I saw the romantic comedy "The Perfect Match" (R, 1:36).

Charlie (Terrence Jenkins, or Terrence J, as he's better known) is a successful celebrity agent, he's handsome and, closing in on his 30th birthday, has everything he's ever wanted – in his words, "making money, driving a fast car and hooking up with models," – with special emphasis on that last one. You see, Charlie, by his own admission, doesn't "do relationships" and he doesn't feel like he's missing anything. Those who know him best would beg to differ. His older sister, Sherry (Paula Patton), who happens to be a therapist, worries that Charlie's emotionally closed off. His best friends, Rick (Donald Faison), who is working on having a baby with his wife, Pressie (Dascha Polanco), and Victor (Robert Christopher Riley), who is planning a long-awaited wedding to his childhood sweetheart, Ginger (Lauren London), both have mad respect for his skills with the ladies, but think it's time for him to settle down. Even though they're just asking him to try it, Charlie isn't happy with his friends trying to cramp his style.

Charlie is tired of his friends dogging him, so he agrees to a bet with them. He'll date one single woman – exclusively – until Victor's wedding (about a month away) to prove to Rick and Victor that he won't get attached, doesn't need to be attached and is perfectly alright remaining detached. Enter Eva (Cassie Ventura). She actually overheard Charlie talking over this bet with his friends and isn't sure that Charlie is her type, but just like Charlie has never been in a long-term relationship, Eva has never been in a short-term one and she says she wants to try something new. Charlie and Eva agree to some no-strings-attached fun and begin spending a lot of time together. Of course, since this a romantic comedy, one of them develops feelings for the other. And, because this is a romantic comedy, you may think you know how this story ends. I'd suggest that you slow your roll. Whatever you're assuming is probably wrong.

By the way, this movie is more than "just" a romantic comedy. In terms of character development, we also see a good bit of Charlie at work. (Remember the first two of those things he said he always wanted? Well, this is where they come in.) Charlie isn't just "an" agent – he's the most valuable agent at his company. Working for the jaded Marty (Joe Pantoliano) and with the obnoxious Abram (Beau Casper Smart) and Charlie's nerdy assistant, Kareem (Steven Daniel Brun), Charlie shows that he's great at what he does. We see him interacting with clients such as Timothy DeLaGhetto (as himself) and "Avatia" (Brandy Norwood), in a short but funny scene accompanied by her assistant, Karen (Kali Hawk). Charlie's main focus is trying to sign French Montana (as himself) to a deal that'll benefit him, Charlie's firm and some other parties as well. Then, just as Charlie's attitudes toward romance and other personal issues look like they might be changing, so might his attitude towards his job and his avocation of photography.

"The Perfect Match" has a pretty bad first half, but a very good second half. For about half of the movie, the acting is suspect, the dialog is boring, the plot points feel forced and there is nary a laugh in this romantic comedy. After the story really gets going, however, the performances seem better, the conversations feel more authentic, the story offers some interesting twists and genuine surprises and the humor ebbs and flows much better. If I were grading the movie in segments, I'd probably give the first half a "C-" and the second half a "B+". But, evaluating an entire movie, my grade ends up somewhere in between, but giving slightly more credit to the movie for actually taking us someplace entertaining, in spite of its slow and uninspired start. In the end, caught between a rock and a hard place on this one, I'm giving the overall movie my barest of recommendations – with a suggestion that if you joined the film about 30-40 minutes into the action, you might actually enjoy it more as a whole. "B-"

The movie tries hard not to be your typical Romantic comedy. It's a little too up beat and hip and does not focus on the romance or the comedy as much as it should

Charlie is the archetype alpha male with the fly job the fly crib and a odd hang up about settling down that makes him vastly different than his two married friends, and gives us a bunch of scenes of them sitting around drinking lattes or working out where they can debate about this. Than he meets that chick who changes his mind about it.

I got to admit, that I did like how the situation develop, it was an interesting twist.

But Charlie does follow the formula for the rom-com lead to the tea, making it hard for Terrence J to shine his charm through the staleness of it. I did enjoy seeing him try, however.

Paula Patton's role as Charlie's sister is way too short for it to be such a key note that it was. It's almost like they added it afterwards in order to make the movie make more sense than it would have without.

I wished it was funnier than it was, too. Not even Donald Faison whose job it was to be funny as Charlie's best friend, was making me laugh.

Maybe I should not say anything about French Montana's over dressed cameo appearance. He was not in the movie cause he can act, but man, could they not find someone better on camera for this?

Even the hot love scenes were kinda bland after awhile.

Overall, I did like how the story played out, not enough to make it worthy of my cash at the box office. Catch it when it comes on cable late at night.

Seriously complete waste of time. I cringed throughout the movie. Movie has no interesting story line. Sex scenes and some lame jokes used in as fillers. Its about typical rich guy who is a playboy and then falls in love. Oh did I mention terrible acting by Terrance J. I pretty much wasted two hours of my time with this movie.

Romantic comedies have changed a bit since their late nineties/early two thousands heyday. Gone are the days of Julia Roberts being, "just a girl, in front of a boy, asking him to love her." It seems somewhere around 2005, Hollywood finally got the message and decided unrealistic, overly romantic gestures like stopping the girl at the airport, or stopping her from marrying the wrong guy at the altar was just a tad too much. Thus we get something like The Perfect Match, a movie sans the final act clichés but still clinging to old attitudes about men and women.

Charlie (Jenkins) is just not the dating type. Living large as a successful music agent and budding photographer, Charlie spends his days meeting up with, and quickly discarding a bevy of attractive women. His friends; a regular cabal of walking stock-characters, tell him he should settle down lest he spend his life alone. Then he meets Karen (Hawk) a women who wants to escape from the long-term relationship feedback loop. "I just want something without any attachments," she says to Charlie as the two get to know each other. Thus what starts as a simple arrangement between two young, attractive people, turns into something more complicated.

Despite some welcomed changes to the genre, The Perfect Match is beat by beat, very beholden to a comedic style that hasn't been in vogue since the nineties. Charlie and his friends Victor (Riley) and Rick (Faison) joke around about how unreasonable, shrewish and/or costly their women are while falling into sitcom dad situations that could easily be avoided if they communicated better. Charlie's sister Sherry (Patton) takes no time explaining to the audience that she's a therapist and delves into Charlie's inner thoughts before we even have the time to get to know him. The first act is so paint by numbers that there's actually something kind of appealing to the menagerie of dated gender role jokes. It's like peering into the psyche of a Bill Burr fan or the Facebook feed of a college sophomore; it's all "women be like _______" jokes.

The characterizations vary not just actor to actor but scene to scene. One minute Robert Christopher Riley's character is noticeably panicked about the cost of his wedding to his fiancée Ginger (London). The next moment he's completely zen without much resolution. Cassie Ventura leans into the testy Latina stereotype which surprisingly is the most consistent and interesting supporting character in the film. Faison brings much needed levity whenever he's on screen but he, along with everyone else is still just reading their lines, collecting a paycheck and going home.

The exact same thing can be said about the main romance, which lacks everything but the bare cliché. Largely established with a coiling array of lovemaking scenes set to R&B music, Jenkins and Hawk seem completely at odds with each other. The chemistry was wholly absent and provides no warmth the audience can cling to. When our smitten hero comes face to face with the perfunctory third act romantic misunderstanding, his reaction is complete overkill, given the fact that he barely knows Karen.

In-spite of all it's various faults, I cannot deny this movie will be exactly what many are looking for. It's a de-fanged romantic comedy with a salient moral about not being a scrub. It provides some fun eye-candy for both sexes and it wasn't directed terribly. In-fact I would argue this kind of material is beneath director Bille Woodruff who has a way with composition and ensemble blocking. It's not Love & Basketball (2000), heck it's not even Think Like a Man (2012) but at least it's heart is in the right place.

From the start I knew this movie would be just bad... But it didn't stop me from giving it a shot. I should have known better.. The pros are definitely beautiful screens of California, good looking and likable people, nice music here and there. In general, the visual side is quite enjoyable. The cons however, outweight the pros. The script about a womanizer who finally falls in love has been repeated dozens of times! The predictability isn't a bad thing. Here, unfortunately, it is neither lighthearted nor funny. Characters are stereotypical, flat and one dimensional. Easily forgettable. Forced jokes, fake chemistry and - to me- annoying ending without proper lessons learned. Next time I'll follow my gut instinct and select another movie.