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"...Funny sidekicks, interesting situations and clever lines..." 09/01/1997 p.118USA Today
"...Jennifer Aniston twinkles enough to emanate star power..." -- 3 out of 4 stars 08/01/1997 p.3D Entertainment Weekly
"...[An] attractive romantic comedy....[Mohr] is direct, disarming and substantial..." 08/01/1997 p.44-5 ReelViews 7 of 10
For eighty minutes of Picture Perfect's one-hundred minute running time, I found myself smiling quite often. As obvious and unambitious as the film was, I actually liked it, and was prepared to file it into the "guilty pleasures" category. Then came the horrible one-two punch of the climax. I was flabbergasted. My smile turned into a cringe. There are times when a bad ending doesn't seriously damage a motion picture. This is not one of those. All of the goodwill I had built up during the bulk of the film was replaced by irritation at the silly, contrived conclusion. And the worst part is that the movie could easily have achieved the same resolution in a far more satisfactory manner. Apparently, director and co-screenwriter Glenn Gordon Caron prefers high melodrama to something more low-key...For the most part, Picture Perfect has a nice, light romantic mood. Caron, who wrote for the TV series Moonlighting and directed the Warren Beatty/Annette Bening remake of Love Affair, clearly has a feel for love stories...Aniston is ably supported by a group of fine actors. Kevin Bacon is delightful as Sam, a man who enjoys one-night stands with unavailable women, then finds that he may be falling for Kate. Olympia Dukakis has a few amusing scenes as Kate's overprotective mother. Illeana Douglas is delightful as the effervescent Darcy...In general, I consider myself to be a defender of romantic comedies, even if they're not terribly original. There's something refreshing about that kind of pure escapism. Unfortunately, Picture Perfect uses embarrassing contrivances to sabotage what should have been a pleasant excursion down a familiar road. Still, even considering its flaws, I think a certain percentage of die-hard romantics will derive some satisfaction from this movie. I wish I had been in that category, but Picture Perfect makes a few too many missteps to earn my recommendation. - James Berardinelli
Chicago Sun-Times 6 of 10
Sometimes a movie will include a subversive line of dialogue that shows somebody was paying attention. In ``Picture Perfect,'' that line comes when the devious woman tells good guy: ``This sounds like something out of `The Patty Duke Show.' '' That hits the nail on the head. And it's a shame the plot is so contrived, because parts of this movie are really pretty good...The film features Jennifer Aniston of TV's ``Friends'' in her first leading movie role, as Kate, an ad executive who has good ideas, but projects the wrong image. She dreams up a campaign, but when the client buys it, she's not included on the account team. Why not? Mercer (Kevin Dunn), the agency head, says it's because she's not engaged and not in debt, so there's nothing to stop her from leaving the company. Then her best friend Darcy (Illeana Douglas) dreams up a scheme: She should claim to be engaged to a guy from Boston...She has met this guy from Boston just once. His name is Nick (Jay Mohr), he videotapes weddings for a living, and he's in love with her. In a nice, subtle touch, we can sense the moment he first notices her, because we're looking through the point of view of his viewfinder at a wedding when his camera focuses on her, and freezes. Kate contacts him and offers him $1,000 to come to New York for a weekend, pose as her boyfriend, and break up with her publicly. That way she'll get the job and be able to explain her freedom. It's at this point that she uses the Patty Duke line, and then he turns down the money...Aniston is pretty, and she has a swell body, but these dresses get to be a joke after a while; is she auditioning for Playboy's ``Girls of Summer''? It was W. C. Fields who hated to appear in the same scene with a child, a dog, or a plunging neckline--because nobody in the audience would be looking at him. Jennifer Aniston has the same problem in this movie even when she's in scenes all by herself. - Roger Ebert
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