{"id":7011,"date":"2024-10-25T11:47:46","date_gmt":"2024-10-25T15:47:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=7011"},"modified":"2024-10-25T11:48:00","modified_gmt":"2024-10-25T15:48:00","slug":"perfect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/10\/25\/perfect\/","title":{"rendered":"Perfect"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Perfect <\/strong>(1985)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Columbia\/Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 120 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language, sexual references, brief nudity)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: James Bridges\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Aaron Latham and James Bridges\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Narada Michael Warden\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Gordon Willis\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: June 7, 1985 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: John Travolta, Jamie Lee Curtis, Anne De Salvo, Marilu Henner, Laraine Newman, Matthew\u00a0 Reed, Jann Wenner, Kenneth Welsh, Murphy Dunne.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $12.9M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: **<\/p>\n

\u00a0The James Bridges drama Perfect<\/strong> presents something of a conundrum. It\u2019s too shallow and simplistic to be taken seriously and too self-serious to be taken as a great bad movie. What we\u2019re left with is a dull, unfocused drama about ethics, journalistic integrity and aerobics populated by vaguely defined characters with less depth than a puddle.<\/p>\n

\u00a0John Travolta (Saturday Night Fever) plays Adam Lawrence, a roving reporter for Rolling Stone who\u2019s been trying to land an interview with a successful businessman (Welsh, Twin Peaks) facing drug charges. Although his lawyers consistently refuse requests for interviews, Adam doesn\u2019t give up. His persistence finally pays off when the businessman agrees to an interview in which he claims the whole thing is a frame-up by the government in retaliation for his doing business with Communist countries (how very 80s!).<\/p>\n

\u00a0Because the story takes Adam to L.A., his editor Mark (real life Rolling Stone publisher) tells him he may as well do another story while he\u2019s out there. Adam decides to write one about how fitness clubs have become \u201cthe singles bars of the 80s\u201d. He chooses a place called The Sport Connection where he meets Jessie Wilson (Curtis, Trading Places), a popular aerobics instructor with an intense distrust of reporters for reasons revealed later. She has zero interest in being part of his story, but it doesn\u2019t stop them from getting sexually involved.<\/p>\n

\u00a0A long stretch of Perfect<\/strong> is devoted to Travolta and Curtis\u2019 characters going back and forth about her distrust of reporters, his lack of ethics and the direction of the story. Although he promises her it will be a thoughtful piece, her unwillingness to cooperate forces him to shift the focus onto the more salacious aspects of the fitness scene.<\/p>\n

\u00a0It isn\u2019t until near the end that Bridges finally decides to present his protagonist with a real dilemma. He\u2019s ordered by prosecutors to turn over the tapes of his interview with the businessman. If he does, he betrays his profession. If he doesn\u2019t, he\u2019ll go to jail. It would be one thing if it was just handled haphazardly and superficially, but it\u2019s not. Bridges treats it as a mere plot device to change Jessie\u2019s low opinion of Adam.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Why don\u2019t I cut through all the BS and just say Perfect<\/strong> is as shallow and superficial as its characters even though the makers would like to think otherwise. Just like the previous collaboration between Travolta, Bridges and co-writer Aaron Latham (Urban Cowboy), the screenplay is based on a series of articles Latham wrote for Rolling Stone. I can\u2019t speak for the articles, but the script, in addition to lacking focus, fails to get beneath the surface of its subject or characters. Take Adam. What\u2019s his deal? Is he a sleazy opportunist willing to sacrifice his soul for a story? Is he a decent reporter who does a few questionable things? Arguments can be made for either one, but the movie never provides a definitive answer. Curtis\u2019 character is afforded a little more depth with her past experience with reporters. Let\u2019s just say she has a good reason for not trusting them. She actually delivers the best and most convincing performance in the movie. She also looks HOT in those tight leotards.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0The idea of being \u201cperfect\u201d is a major theme running throughout. Several characters talk about it. One in particular, fitness club regular Linda (Newman, SNL), cites it as the primary reason for working out. She\u2019s an insecure sort described by one character as \u201cthe most used piece of equipment\u201d in the place. If any character deserves her own story arc, it\u2019s her. It\u2019s clear she has self-esteem issues that cause her to compensate with loose morals. At a party, she says, \u201cI guess I\u2019ll go see if I scare up a gang-bang\u201d after witnessing her bff Linda (Henner, Johnny Dangerously) get engaged to her male stripper boyfriend Roger (Reed). The screenplay is inconsistent about her psychology. When the crap hits the fan with Adam\u2019s story, she barely reacts. You\u2019d think somebody in her fragile state would go off the deep end. As for Wenner, he need not quit his day job. He\u2019s not at all convincing which is really bad considering it\u2019s what he does in real life.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The only other point of interest in Perfect<\/strong> is the aerobics scenes. These people seem obsessed with keeping their pelvises nimble. That\u2019s mostly what they do in Jessie\u2019s classes. One scene is particular is rife with double meaning. When Adam participates in one of her classes, it\u2019s sort of like the famous dinner scene in Tom Jones only with suggestive gyrating instead of suggestive chewing. It\u2019s the funniest scene in the whole movie. The rest of it is fairly slow and boring.<\/p>\n

\u00a0If you looked up the term \u201cdated movie\u201d, you\u2019d probably find the poster for Perfect<\/strong> next to it. It is so very 80s with the hairstyles, fashions and soundtrack that includes cuts from Jermaine Jackson (\u201c[Closest Thing to] Perfect\u201d), Berlin (\u201cMasquerade\u201d) and Dan Hartman (\u201cTalking to the Wall\u201d). If that isn\u2019t 80s enough for you, the businessman is clearly modeled after John DeLorean, the wealthy car manufacturer charged with dealing cocaine.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Oh my! I almost forgot to mention Travolta\u2019s performance. It\u2019s not one of his shining moments. He looks lost at sea as a reporter in an ethical quandary. Also, he doesn\u2019t have any real chemistry with Curtis. In his defense, he\u2019s done worse. In any event, he\u2019s just one of many things that don\u2019t work in Perfect<\/strong>, a misnomer of a title if ever I saw one.\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Perfect (1985)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Columbia\/Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 120 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language, sexual references, brief nudity)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: James Bridges\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Aaron Latham and James Bridges\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Narada Michael Warden\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Gordon Willis\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: June 7, 1985 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: John Travolta, Jamie Lee Curtis, Anne De Salvo, Marilu Henner, Laraine Newman, Matthew\u00a0 Reed, Jann Wenner, Kenneth Welsh, Murphy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7340,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dramas"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Perfect-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7011"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7011\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7342,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7011\/revisions\/7342"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}