Quartile rating: 6/10 · 1 rating
Holly is tired of moving every time her mom Jean breaks up with yet another second-rate guy. To distract her mother from her latest bad choice, Holly conceives the perfect plan for the perfect man, an imaginary secret admirer who will romance Jean and boost her self-esteem.
The Perfect Man is a formulaic family comedy that doesn't rise much above its mid-2000s Disney Channel movie aesthetic. The premise has some charm — a daughter catfishing her own mother with a fake admirer — but the execution is predictable and the complications resolve in entirely expected ways. Hilary Duff and Heather Locklear are watchable but the script doesn't give them much to work with. Cinematography is functional and unremarkable. The catfishing/secret admirer angle had some novelty in 2005 but feels recycled even then from similar teen romantic comedies. The ending wraps up too neatly and conveniently, undermining any earned emotional weight.