Film Review: 'The Perfect Date'

High school senior, Brooks Rattigan (Noah Centineo), wants nothing more than to be accepted into Yale and move out of his small town. Thing is, with his author father, Charlie (Matt Walsh), struggling to find new employment, Brooks finds himself strapped for cash. That is, until he agrees to go out on a date with his classmate's cousin, Celia Lieberman (Laura Marano), in exchange for payment.

It's then that Brooks comes up with a plan to gain enough money for college: create an app for women to custom-build their date with him, and his friend, Murph (Odiseas Georgiadis), designing the app for him. While Brooks' app grows in popularity, Brooks forms a friendship with the snarky Celia, helping her with her attempts to connect with her crush, Franklin (Blaine Kern III), while pursuing Celia's rich and popular classmate, Shelby Pace (Camila Mendes). But as Brooks' app gets more popular, his friends find themselves losing him. Will Brooks finally realize that his pursuit of having it all will only leave him without what matters most?

In Netflix's latest entry into their "original teen movie" sub-genre, The Perfect Date is hardly likely to become a John Hughes-esque cult classic. But even with the fluffiness of its content, The Perfect Date constructs itself away from potentially cloying or gag-worthy fluff to make an enjoyable film. The fairly standard plot is livened up by the app that triggers it, and is further carried by strong performances. Noah Centineo, who has quickly become a familiar face to Netflix, does well as the leading man, exuding charm as the driven but awkward Brooks and playing his character development throughout the film with authentic, emotional zeal. Even as Brooks begins to risk becoming an insufferable character, Centineo keeps his actions balanced enough to where you never truly feel Brooks is becoming an awful person; just someone who has become blinded by his own desires.

Laura Marano (who is reuniting with Centineo eight years after starring in Disney's Austin & Ally together) is also a strong protagonist, even though her "angsty rich girl" routine initially feels stale and comes at the risk of making Celia unlikable. But as the film progresses, it becomes clearer that for all her snark and jabs at Brooks, Celia is a good person who wishes to be herself, but feels the need to hide behind sarcasm out of fear of rejection. The moments when her mask of snark falls to reveal an awkward and insecure teenager are when Marano's performance feels the most authentic, and her later declaration to her parents regarding how she feels about finding a relationship is perhaps her strongest moment as a character. Blaine Kern III and Camila Mendes both also bring charm to their flawed side characters and do surprisingly well with their limited screen time and, in a refreshing twist, neither of their characters are depicted in the parameters of the archetypal roles they could've been shoved into (vapid hipster and spoiled rich girl, respectively), or treated as outright antagonists.

The Perfect Date, however, falls flat in some areas of characterization. While Brooks is built up as the flawed, but genuinely good protagonist in need of a reality check, his relationship with his father (who Matt Walsh plays with genuine charm and heart throughout the film) is the one area where Brooks' insensitive attitude is never addressed. Brooks is shown to look down on his father for his career taking a nosedive and for encouraging him to look into the public college he teaches at, almost developing an elitist disdain for any college that isn't the Ivy League. While they ultimately make up, Brooks' attitude is never addressed, which is unfortunate due to how well his "jerk realization" regarding Celia is handled, with him coming to realize of his own accord how terribly he's treated her and that earning her trust and forgiveness won't be as easy as he intentionally thinks.

Meanwhile, Brooks' falling out with Murph (who, despite being played with strong quirky charm by Odiseas Georgiadis, never really breaks away from being a "Hero's Quirky Best Friend" archetype) isn't given the screentime it needs to feel genuine. Essentially, all we see is Brooks skip out on one outing with Murph for an app date, and Murph immediately begins distancing himself from Brooks to the point of even changing his work schedule to avoid seeing him. Since we never see Murph becoming upset about Brooks' becoming busy with the app, this development appears rushed, causing the conflict resulting from the friendship breakdown to feel hollow.

Apart from these flaws, however, The Perfect Date is otherwise not a bad movie to spend a quiet weekend with, with a talented cast to liven up the standard "teen rom-com" plot arcs and bringing some emotional depth into what could've been a paint-by-numbers story. It may not be perfect for everyone, but The Perfect Date certainly stands up among the rest of Netflix's original film catalog.

Score: 6 out of 10 sub shops.