Saturday, February 29, 2020

Romancefest 2020: The Perfect Date


Written by Steve Bloom and Randall Green. Story by Steve Bloom, based on his novel. Directed by Chris Nelson. Starring Noah Centineo, Laura Marano, Odiseas Gerorgiadis, Camila Mendes and Matt Walsh. USA, 2019

A high schooler obsessed with getting into Yale starts an app-based business offering himself up as a date-for-hire.

Noah Centineo, the love interest in the “To All the Boys…” movies is front and center here as the star, and he’s a lot more charming as a comedic lead than as the object of affection. This movie gets the basic premise over with within the first few minutes – I thought the whole thing would be about him getting paid to take a “difficult” girl out to a dance, but it turns out that’s just the inciting incident that propels the rest of the movie, so that was a pleasant surprise. There’s nothing ground breaking here, but it’s a better-than-average rom-com with some legit laughs and a lesson to learn that’s not really rom-com based – sure, there’s romance and there’s comedy, but the protagonist’s central dilemma is not relationship-based, but rather a struggle to find his own identity.

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