Picture Perfect is a 1997 American romantic comedy film directed by Glenn Gordon Caron, starring Jennifer Aniston, Jay Mohr, Kevin Bacon, Illeana Douglas, Olympia Dukakis & Anne Twomey.
Plot[]
| Spoiler Warning: The following contains important plot details of the entire film. |
A woman named Kate Mosley (Jennifer Aniston) is struggling in the advertising business in New York despite her talent. Her boss, Mr. Mercer (Kevin Dunn), passes her up for a promotion because she is "not stable enough".
Kate's co-worker, Darcy (Illeana Douglas), invents a story claiming that Kate is engaged to Nick (Jay Mohr), a freelance videographer who lives in Massachusetts (with whom Kate had her picture taken during a friend's wedding).
All seems to work out well for Kate.
After Nick saves a little girl from a fire and winds up in the news, Kate is forced to bring her alleged fiancé to dinner with Mercer and his wife. She asks Nick to "break up" with her. Nick (who already likes Kate) complies to please Kate.
Meanwhile, Sam (Kevin Bacon), a colleague that Kate had always wanted, takes notice of her & they have sex twice. As Kate and Nick get to know each other, she starts to like him. The night of the dinner arrives and Kate and Nick are prepared for their "big fight". But Nick tries to suppress the "fight" by complimenting her and expressing the desire for a future with Kate. However, Kate just wants the "fight" to happen.
At the dinner table, Kate tries to drive Nick into a fight but it doesn't work. She pays a restaurant employee to call her number and tries to make it seem like Nick is having an affair with an ex-girlfriend. At first Nick is a bit lost but figures it out and finally plays along.
After a week of feeling guilty, Kate admits to Mercer (and several co-workers) her cover-up, stating that she was dressing for the job she wanted, repeating a line that Mercer had used on her earlier regarding her instability.
Mercer pays a visit to Kate's office, where she tells him she's quitting. Mercer counters by admitting to Kate how he exaggerated his own past at one point in his life. He suggests she take a few days off to go to Massachusetts and patch things up with Nick. Mercer let her keep her job as an ad executive.
Kate walks in while Nick is recording a wedding and he rebuffs her attempts to patch things up until she humiliates herself in front of the soon-to-be-married couple as Nick did in front of her boss earlier. Satisfied that the playing field has been leveled, Nick invites Kate to the wedding reception as his guest & they make up after Kate accepts his offer.
Cast[]
- Jennifer Aniston as Kate Mosley
- Jay Mohr as Nick
- Kevin Bacon as Sam Mayfair
- Olympia Dukakis as Rita Mosley
- Illeana Douglas as Darcy O'Neil
- Matthew Sussman as Darcy's Husband
- Kevin Dunn as Mr. Mercer
- Faith Prince as Mrs. Mercer
- Anne Twomey as Sela
- John Rothman as Jim Davenport
- Meg Gibson as Mrs. Davenport
- Paul Cassell as Brad
- Ivar Brogger as 1st Ad Executive
- Peter McRobbie as 2nd Ad Executive
- Bray Poor as 3rd Ad Executive
- Daryl Edwards as 4th Ad Executive
- Jenna Stern as 5th Ad Executive
- Bellina Logan as Agency Receptionist
- Sean Patrick Thomas as Agency Researcher
- Andrea Bendewald as Pregnant Friend
- Marcia DeBonis as Rosie
- Amelia Campbell as Susan
- Faran Tahir as Sajit
- David Cromwell as Minister
- Jessica Cushman as Bride
- Kaley Cuoco as Little Girl
- Greg Grunberg as Date (uncredited)
Production[]
For the role of Nick, John Corbett, Jon Stewart, Matthew Broderick & William Baldwin screen-tested for it. Jennifer Aniston pushed for Tate Donovan (her then-boyfriend) to get the role & was reportedly unhappy when Jay Mohr was cast in the role instead.
The filming for "Picture Perfect" began on May 29, 1996 and ended on August 7, 1996 and was filmed in New York City and West Orange, New Jersey. The street scenes were filmed at the Elk Lodge in Hoboken, New Jersey.
Box Office[]
"Picture Perfect" debuted at #5 at the box office, grossing $7,809,026 during its opening weekend. It also grossed $44,332,015 worldwide and $31,407,873 domestically.
Critical Reception[]
"Picture Perfect" received mixed reviews from critics holding a 48% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 42 reviews.
Metacritic (which assigns a weighted average score from 1 to 100 to reviews from mainstream critics) gave it a 44 based on 16 critics.
Roger Ebert gave the film two stars and wrote: "It's a shame the plot is so contrived, because parts of this movie are really pretty good."
Marc Savlov from the Austin Chronicle wrote: "The result is a vacuous feel-good movie that leaves you feeling nothing at all."
Ruthe Stein of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote that it was "another romantic comedy about a career woman who has everything except a man, is Jennifer Aniston's attempt to break out of her TV role. But she doesn't have the magic on the big screen to make us forget where she came from."
Video[]
Picture Perfect (1997) Trailer