The Perfect Match – Film Review
If The Perfect Match has anything going for it, it is the flashy lifestyle showcased throughout the movie. The movie is visually striking, the cast is young, black and glamourous and need I mention the killer wardrobe that can put the likes of Gossip Girl in its heyday to shame.
The story is your typical battle between the playboy and the enigmatic game-changer. Charlie (Terrence Jenkins) has had countless one night stands and has never been known to commit to a serious relationship. Convinced that relationships are dead, his attraction to the beautiful women he sleeps with dies out as soon as the night is over.
His best friends, Victor (Robert Christopher Riley) and Rick (Donald Faison), have a different outlook on love so they challenge Charlie to stick to one girl for a month, believing that he is bound to fall in love. Confident that he will prove his friends wrong, Charlie takes the bet. It is not long before he meets the beautiful and mysterious Eva (Cassie Ventura), who has only ever been in long-term relationships. They agree to engage in a casual affair that seems satisfying enough until Charlie realises that the “no strings attached” deal is proving to be harder than he thought. It does not help that Eva seems more eager to duck out once the magic of the fling is over.
This movie is of course made up of all the elements that make a romantic comedy work. The set is filled with an all-star cast and the lighting sets the tone with its warm radiant glow, capturing the lavishness sprinkled throughout each scene that protrays what can only be described as the champagne lifestyle.
However (depending on what you came for), the setting and the cast is as sparkling as it gets. As much as you should expect to enjoy this movie like any other romance, the script is full of the clichés that most of them have to offer, so do not expect much more. I suppose it does try to produce more engaging content for the audience. For instance, Charlie’s friend, Rick, and his wife, Pressie (Dascha Polanco), are trying to have a baby. We are shown the frustration of the couple not being on the same page about it. Charlie’s other friend, Victor, earns less than his wife, Ginger (Lauren London), so we see how several complexes come into play. With sub-stories that deal with real issues, we gather that by no means is this movie meant to be depicted as a bubble-gum romance. However, much of this seems like the notes were taken from a couple of Tyler Perry films and these sub-stories are quite common in many Black American films.
Luckily enough, the personalities of characters themselves hold the story together. They are humorous and linkable; most of the actors are genuine in their delivery, which does allow you to pay attention to them as if you are paying attention to someone you know. Ventura’s character Eva, is a gorgeous, magnetic woman who is different from the other girls that Charlie has been with because she seems to have an interest in his life and she listens to his problems. Ironically though, Ventura is rather flavourless in her delivery as Eva, which is disappointing, but I can live with it.
The Perfect Match provides enough to keep you interested, with bits of humour and realness that keep the movie going at a decent pace; it is enjoyable enough to get you through it. However, it is likely that when another romantic movie with a similar plot comes along, you might end up having forgotten specifically which movie that one reminds you of. The Perfect Match is more fluff and glam than anything memorable to really sink your teeth into.
