Friends star Jennifer Aniston made her debut as the leading lady of a feature film in this romantic comedy. Kate (Aniston) is an art director with an advertising agency whose personal and professional life is stuck in neutral; while her work is good, her boss Mr. Mercer (Kevin Dunn) won't give her a promotion, and while Kate is attracted to co-worker Sam (Kevin Bacon), he's not interested in her. Kate learns that Mercer is loath to promote single people, because without permanent attachments
they're free to leave whenever they wish. Kate's friend Darcy (Illeana Douglas) comes up with a possible solution: use a photo of Kate with handsome stranger Nick (Jay Mohr) to convince Mercer that she's engaged to be married. The ruse works -- Kate gets her promotion, and Sam, who's attracted to women who are already spoken for, starts showing her some attention. But soon Mercer wants to meet Kate's husband-to-be; Kate tracks down Nick and persuades him to pose as her intended for an evening, but Nick decides at the end of the night that he's in love with her. Picture Perfect was written and directed by Glenn Gordon Caron, who created the TV series Moonlighting. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
[Aniston] has the rare gift of getting you to root for her in the most trying of circumstances, a quality that will stand her in good stead when she progresses to better material.
The characters are one-dimensional and surprisingly shallow, the film is unpleasantly predictable, and the realism factor here is You've gotta be kidding.
The main thing that makes it watchable are the performances of Jennifer Aniston, Jay Mohr and Kevin Bacon. The three make an interesting romantic triangle, despite numerous plot problems, such as the story is basically unbelievable.
The script has interesting comments to make about the expectations people place on love, marriage and commitment, but it fails to follow through; its structure disintegrates just at the point when it should take off...
An average Aniston Rom-Com. Not her best or her worst. It's ok but I have watched a few of her more recent films lately that I thought were better or funnier at least.
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