| Show Hilary Duffs Duff's ill-conceived ill Perfect Man t y yV y V 1 I I J I r r r f CI CD s 3 5 u tj rA ii ij ry r. r 2 o CD c cJ J Hilary Duff and Heather Locklear portray mother and daughter in the teen flick chick The Perfect Man Stephen Hunter The Washingto Post Baby when you walk out of a movie thinking Say that Heather Locklear was pretty darn good the movies movie's got some problems Locklear is indeed the best thing in The Perfect Man in which she's cast as a far- far perfect from-perfect woman a woman of narcissism frivolity frivolity frivolity lity self-indulgence self but also under it all an abiding decency and love for her children No Oscar not its it's material V A uL JU I 7 1 but the longtime TV star grounds the than lighter-than-air thing into some semblance of reality and gives it something something something some some- thing about which to revolve And boy does it need grounding Otherwise The Perfect Man is another misbegotten attempt by someone who should know better than to turn Hilary Duff into a movie star and I cant can't imagine it'll do any better than the recent failures Cinderella Story and Raise Your Voice Gack it continues A quick look at the Internet Movie Database reveals Database reveals there are areno no j orn 1 l oi 03 J h J fewer than three more Duff vehicles in the works Why good God why Not to be too rough on one so young but its it's hard to see a single thing about the pleasant but eminently forgettable Duff that makes her so essential to today's Hollywood Locklear and Duff mother and daughter Jean and Holly Hamilton are encountered in Wichita where It Happens Again That is perennially immature single mom Jean Locklear has just dumped boyfriend No 39 or 57 or something and as usual needs to needs io leave the area and- and C j iii it h Iq Hi I Begin Anew people in movies are always Beginning Anew while those of us in reality are stuck for life Daughter Holly Duff decides to fake her mom into falling in love via mail e-mail with a phony Perfect Man knowing that the stability and security will cultivate moms mom's nesting tendencies and they'll stay put But she doesn't know what a perfect man would be so she decides to base him oil on 01 her new best friends friend's Uncle Ben Chris Noth a restaurateur or down by the riverfront And why is this fellow perfect Beats me Beats M Mark rk Rosman too and he should know He directed the movie Meanwhile in the puppy- puppy love department Hollys Holly's being goo-goo-eyed goo by another adorable presence Adam Forrest played by Ben Feldman To call the relationship relationship relationship rela rela- that follows chaste is to undersell it considerably considerably considerably consider consider- ably Its It's sexless hapless and hopeless Feldmans Feldman's okay in ina a role that asks little of him beyond benign acceptance of the Duff N Now ow and then The Perfect Man M m stirs to life but mostly its it's Duff in her heavy eye makeup and tight jeans welded welded welded weld weld- ed shut running around acting harassed and embarrassed The central conflict develops after about seven hours She realizes Ij i nI d IilA n I. I l I 1 I that Ben indeed would be for her but perfect mom now she's got to contrive to keep 1 j r them apart to keep the deception deception deception tion going This yields one deft scene where she must diversion when it engineer a f. f transpires that mom and pals l have headed for Uncle Bens Ben's bistro Its It's farce knock farce knockdown knock knock- At y down crackerjack fast and if not furious at least slightly f 4 s 's 5 heated that heated that produces a few J genuine laughs to r But mostly the movie produces produces produces pro- pro duces yawns when its it's not f j N producing awe that someone I even bothered to make it s t Noth who showed some charm in Sex and the City seems to have forgotten all about it here but hes he's not in inthe inthe inthe the film that much to matter v r anyway Then the movie only marginally faces the ugliness of manipulation and deceit at its center It suggests suggests suggests sug- sug that the cruel trick the kid plays on her mom can be I forgiven and forgotten in a a single conversation with no notime notime notime time necessary for healing And in truth it has to be said the movie rewards its star with a happy ending for her ugly behavior The plot against Mom basically works and the lesson communicated communicated com corn isn't girl power but lie power Are we sure this is what we want to tell the young adults for whom the movie was clearly intended J j T tJ 1 n t ril I l. l |
