Aniston Paints Bad ‘Picture’ In First Lead
Imagine a TV movie about Rachel from “Friends.” Now, imagine Rachel without her funny co-stars. Disgusted? You’ve just dreamed up “Picture Perfect.”
In Jennifer Aniston’s leading-female debut, she manages to play the same role she does on television, only without the talented writers. From the opening scene, “Picture Perfect” makes the mistake of relying on the situation for laughs, instead of what the characters say. For about five minutes, the situations are funny. Then, they get old. Very old.
Except for a couple of formula romantic-comedy scenes, “Picture Perfect” isn’t funny.
The premise: Kate (Aniston) is a rising star in an advertising company, but her boss (Kevin Dunn) is unwilling to promote her until he sees some structure in her life. At the same time, she has a crush on a co-worker, Sam (Kevin Bacon), who doesn’t want her because she isn’t “bad” enough. So, to advance Kate’s career, another co-worker (Illeana Douglas) shows her boss a picture of Kate and some guy, telling him the pair are engaged. With this sudden structure, Kate gets her promotion. Simultaneously, Sam becomes attracted to her.
To confuse the issue, Kate’s boss wants to have dinner with her and her new beau. Kate finds the guy in the picture and brings him to town to have dinner. To take advantage of the promotion, without the baggage of the made-up fiance, she stages a big fight to happen during dinner. But, of course, it’s never that easy.
The so-called boyfriend, Nick (Jay Mohr) starts to like Kate, and when the relationship is over, Sam loses interest in Kate. The rest is predictable.
It’s too bad that Aniston had to be the focus of the film. The other characters are much more interesting. Either the screenwriters didn’t want to make a compelling movie, or Aniston just doesn’t have the acting chops to pull off a leading role.
The only problem with the potentially fascinating supporting characters is the way they are presented. Mohr is quite good, but he is never in the movie unless directly in contact with Aniston. Same goes for co-workers Bacon and Douglas. Also worth noting is Olympia Dukakis’s role as Kate’s mother. While hopelessly stereotypical, she’s quite entertaining.
For her own sake, Aniston needs to stick to supporting roles like she had in “She’s the One” (or, for that matter, in “Friends”). For everyone else’s sake, I highly recommend “My Best Friend’s Wedding” over “Picture Perfect.”
Grade: C-