“The Perfect Date” based on the novel “The Stand In” by Steve Bloom is the third of a trilogy of Noah Centineo movies we didn’t know was actually happening, and while some may be enjoying how often these films are dropping on Netflix, here is some unsolicited advice to the one dubbed as “The Internet’s Boyfriend” – its okay to leave your comfort zone. Centineo can take a few lessons from Heath Ledger, who after the success of the Romantic Comedy “10 Things I Hate About You” in 1999. Received numerous scripts and offers for roles similar to his character or in the genre of the film. Ledger declined these roles, wanting to choose a movie that would be far from “10 Things -”. He starred in “The Patriot” in 2000 alongside Mel Gibson and in “A Knight’s Tale” in 2001.
No hate. Noah Centineo is your charming boy next door to a tee but I would really like to see him as a different character and in a different genre all together, good news is that we will be seeing him in the upcoming “Charlie’s Angels” reboot, now to what extent is something yet to be seen. At least this time it will be on a big screen, he will be part of an ensemble cast and he would have to take the back seat for the leading ladies of course.
“The Perfect Date” offers nothing new as a Romantic Comedy, in fact it bears a lot of similarities with Noah Centineo’s debut “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before”. Yes, Centineo is still charming as the ideal boy next door, here he plays Brooks Rattigan, a middle class high school student aiming to go to Yale. He studies hard, and works hard. He works part time at a sandwich store and really want to impress with his College Essay. In order to earn the money that will get him into Yale, he dons on different personalities (per request of the client) as a “stand in” date in an App, he and his best friend created. Think Grab Food but instead you get a date/boyfriend and you can specify his personality (and no, he is not a gigalo).
The girl who gave him the idea? The sardonic and deadpan Celia Liebermann (Laura Marano) who is possibly my favorite thing about the movie. She and Centineo have great chemistry together and I would love to see her in more films in the future.
Oh, another girl I would love to see in a different role?
Camila Mendes of Riverdale is another rich girl – Shelby Pace in “The Perfect Date”, here she is the object of Brooks’ affection. He wants to get into Yale and drive the best cars? Well, he wants to date the most hottest and most popular girl as well. Yeah, he’s that kind of guy.
While he puts on a different personality every night, he realisez he doesn’t know who he really is and this is where the film works on its themes of adolescents searching for their identities, as if an Ivy League school, a car and clothes make a person; which is what Brooks seems to think. I for one, would like to think that human beings are more complicated than that. Its interesting to note that it is Brooks’ dad, played by Matt Walsh, who is a struggling, down on his luck writer who tackles this age old struggle head on. He says:
We are all just figuring it out (who we are) as we go along. The best you can do is reflect on who you were in the past and compare that to who you want to be in the future and split the difference. That’s who you are now.
Brooks can be a typical selfish teenager trying to figure out his identity while navigating High School and wanting to get into the school of his dreams and he can also be a bit of a douche, ironically one of his stand in requests is a douche. It does take a couple of wake up calls for him to realize that and ultimately ditch the fake personas and just own being himself.
A must watch if you are a fan of the RomCom genre and/or Noah Centineo, it’s a good enough weekend flick, doesn’t necessarily have to be the perfect date night “in” with your significant other, friends or yourself but it will do. 6/10.