LOUISA: 
LOUISA SAYS:
The classic romantic comedy plot is on full display in “The Perfect Match.” Stop me if you’ve heard this before: a playboy womanizer makes a bet with his buddies and vows to remain faithful to one girl for an entire month (which according to Hollywood is the perfect amount of time for him to fall in love with her). This been-there-done-that storyline luckily has an eventual shocking, satisfying twist that surprised me, but it didn’t save the lethargic exposition that comes before. While I appreciate the filmmakers trying to put their own spin on the tried-and-true formula, it’s simply not very good movie. To make matters worse, the movie is interspersed with laughably unsexy steamy romantic ‘interludes,’ so many that I found myself wondering if this was all some sort of a joke.
The main problem is that there aren’t any characters you want to root for. Lothario Charlie Mac (Terrence Jenkins) may be rich, suave and successful, but he’s not exactly a catch. I didn’t care if he found his soulmate in Eva (Cassie Ventura), he was mostly just there to serve as (admittedly very tasty) eye candy. There’s the obligatory “let’s-try-for-a-baby” storyline, but I didn’t care if Rick (Donald Faison) and Pressie (Dascha Polanco) could finally conceive; do these people really need to be parents? Throw in an awful-as-usual, ditzy performance from the always perkily annoying Paula Patton as a borderline unethical therapist and the confusion grows. There’s also a dumb subplot about Ginger (Lauren London) and Vic’s (Robert Christopher Riley) expensive wedding planning. If you think this is too much to handle, the film features at least a half dozen more totally boring, inconsequential subplots.
The ensemble of actors is off-balance here, making it implausible that any of them would be friends in real life. It’s hard to overcome gross miscasting like this. Worst of all was the cameo by rapper French Montana, playing himself. I’ve never heard of this guy before but an actor he’s not; his ‘performance’ was so awful that it was distracting.
“The Perfect Match” features a likable enough cast, but nothing about the story or characters rings true. In the end, it’s nothing more than a forgettable romantic “comedy” without much comedy.
Matt was unavailable for review.
Screen Zealots 