Picture Perfect (1997) Reviews

My sister and I saw 'Picture Perfect' in the theater back when it was released in 1997, mainly because Kevin Bacon is in it (we were never into "Friends", or Jennifer Aniston). I thought the movie was okay -- nothing remarkable.

I didn't bother re-watching 'Picture Perfect' until almost 18 years later, when I was bored one evening and saw that it was available on Netflix. I happened to be in the mood for something "familiar" that night (or at least sort of familiar), so I settled on 'Picture Perfect'.

My opinion of the movie 18 years after I first watched it basically hasn't changed: 'Picture Perfect' is still a cutesy-yet-passable romantic comedy. Nothing earth-shattering, but a more-or-less harmless way to while away an hour-and-a-half or so.

Aniston still didn't do much for me as "Kate", the protagonist; neither did Jay Mohr (as "Nick", the man who gamely plays along with pretending to be Kate's fiancé for some contrived reason, and of course turns out to be her "Mr. Right"). However, it's always nice to see Bacon and Illeana Douglas onscreen (even though both of their roles are rather thankless here -- and Bacon in particular isn't in top form).

There's one thing I can't remember if I noticed or not back in 1997 -- and that's just how selfish, whiny, and UN-likable Aniston's character comes across. (Especially during the "wedding" scene toward the end... ugh!) WHY are so many female romantic comedy heroines like this? Are we supposed to find them "charming"? Because I rarely (if ever) do -- and I REALLY didn't think that Kate was very charming at all.

Annoying as she was, though, the movie's still alright as a whole; however, I'm not particularly surprised that it received its fair share of negative reviews. (4.5/10)

Jennifer Aniston must be one of the most frustrating actress I know. I mean, she is quite charming and she seems to be rather talented but, honestly, she always plays the same role in the same average and predictable romantic comedies and, at this point, it is getting pretty tiresome. She made this flick right in the middle of her career in ‘Friends’, it was actually one of her very first movies, apparently, it was her first lead part and it is actually a fine example about why her career has become so disappointing. Indeed, it is basically one of those romantic-comedies with a high concept, the plot didn't make much sense and it was not really entertaining whatsoever. At least, Kevin Bacon stole the show as usual but even him didn't succeed in making this movie more watchable. At the end of the day, it is a really uninspired and predictable rom-com which tried to surf on Jennifer Aniston’s new fame with ‘Friends’ (that’s probably the reason why her character felt so similar to Rachel Green). To conclude, it is not really a bad movie, but it's pretty average and it is not really worth a look, except maybe if you are a die-hard fan of Jennifer Aniston.