Brooks Rattigan wants to get into Yale. His father, Charlie, wants him to go to the University of Connecticut instead, which has offered him a full scholarship. That tension drives The Perfect Date, a teen romantic comedy that tries to balance a satirical tech scheme with genuine romance, and mostly succeeds at the former while stumbling on the latter.
Noah Centineo plays Brooks, a high schooler who starts a dating app that lets him act as a stand-in boyfriend. Laura Marano plays Celia Lieberman, the wealthy cousin whose family pays him to pretend to date her. Odiseas Georgiadis plays Murph, the programmer friend who builds the app. Camila Mendes plays Shelby Pace, the snobby beauty Brooks pursues. Matt Walsh plays Charlie Rattigan, the dad pushing UConn.
The premise is clever. Brooks is a liar by trade, selling himself as the perfect plus-one for any occasion. The app works because Brooks can adapt to anyone’s idea of a boyfriend, changing his personality on command. That flexibility is the movie’s hook, and it lands early.
Trailer, via Netflix.
Brooks’s App and the Yale Gambit
Brooks’s scheme starts small. He takes a job pretending to date Celia’s cousin, earning money while she goes to parties and events. The app expands from there, with Murph posting Brooks as available for hire across campus. The movie tracks how Brooks juggles multiple clients, each wanting him to be a different version of himself.
The joke about Brooks’s app is that it is a dating app for a dating app. He is the product, and he knows it. He tells Shelby he is from affluent Darien rather than working-class Bridgeport, and later admits to lying to a Yale dean to impress him. The movie treats both deceptions as roughly equal, which is a fair point about performance in general.
But the Yale gambit is where the movie loses focus. Brooks applies to Yale after Celia sets up an interview for him. He researches the dean beforehand and lies to him during the meeting. When Celia finds out, she is upset, and Brooks justifies himself by saying it is no different from what he has been doing with the app. The logic holds, but the scene drags because the movie spends more time on the mechanics of the application than on the emotional stakes.
Celia’s Crush and the Fake Break-Up
Celia has a crush on Franklin Volley, and Brooks and Celia set up a fake break-up plan. Each gets to be with Shelby and Franklin respectively. The plan works, but it backfires when Celia realizes Franklin is not the person for her. She slaps Brooks during the fake break-up, and Brooks thinks it is all part of the act.
The fake break-up is the climax of the movie’s satire. Brooks has been performing love for money, and now the performance falls apart. The slap is a release valve for everything the movie has built up about Brooks’s detachment. It works as a moment, but it leaves the romance unresolved.
Shelby and the Formal
Shelby kisses Brooks and asks him to accompany her to her school formal. They struggle to relate to one another and hold a conversation. At the formal, Brooks sees Leah, a girl who used his app to practice dating. She thanks him for helping her through it.
This subplot is thin, but it reinforces the movie’s central idea. Brooks is a tool, and his clients are using him to learn how to date. The irony is that Brooks himself is terrible at it. He is good at being a boyfriend, but bad at being one.
What Works and What Doesn’t
The movie is at its best when it is satirizing the app economy. Brooks’s ability to change his personality is a sharp comment on how young people perform online. The movie shows how quickly Brooks can become whoever a client wants him to be, and it makes the joke land repeatedly.
The humor is consistent, and the pacing is brisk. The runtime is 90 minutes, which means the movie never overstays its welcome. The jokes are mostly verbal, with Brooks explaining his schemes to Murph in quiet, deadpan lines. Centineo plays Brooks as charming and smug, and the chemistry with Marano is the movie’s strongest asset.
Where the movie stumbles is in its romance. Brooks and Shelby spend most of the film talking past each other. Their conversations are awkward, and the movie does not invest enough time in building their connection before asking the audience to believe in it. The formal is meant to be a turning point, but the movie rushes through it.
The fake break-up also raises a question the movie does not answer. Celia realizes Franklin is not for her, but she does not tell Brooks. The movie ends with the two of them still circling each other, and the ambiguity is frustrating. A romance about a man who performs love should resolve the performance, but the movie leaves it hanging.
The Cast and the Execution
The cast sells the movie. Centineo is the lead, and he plays Brooks with a confident smirk that makes the character likable even when he is lying. Marano plays Celia with a coldness that turns warm by the end. Mendes plays Shelby as a mean girl who softens, though the softening is rushed. Georgiadis plays Murph as the loyal friend who eventually cuts Brooks off, which is the movie’s sharpest character arc.
Walsh plays Charlie as a pushy dad, and the subplot about UConn versus Yale runs parallel to the main romance. The supporting cast fills out the high school world without distracting from the central story.
The direction is competent. Chris Nelson directs from a screenplay by Steve Bloom and Randall Green, and the film follows the novel The Stand-In by Steve Bloom, published by Carolrhoda Lab in October 2017. The visual style is bright and clean, with a color palette that matches the movie’s sunny surface. The editing is tight, and the 90-minute runtime moves fast.
A Good Joke, a Weak Ending
The Perfect Date is a funny movie about a funny premise. Brooks’s app is a satirical comment on the gig economy and social performance, and the movie nails it. Centineo and Marano carry the romance, even when the script gives them thin material.
The ending is the problem. The fake break-up resolves the satire but leaves the romance open. The movie promises a love story about a performer and delivers a love story about a liar. The difference is subtle, but it matters. A love story about a performer is about trust. A love story about a liar is about suspicion. The movie leans into the latter, and the payoff is smaller.
The movie is not a failure, but it is a missed opportunity. It could have been a sharper commentary on dating culture if it had committed to the satire. Instead, it splits the difference between satire and romance, and the romance loses out.
Key Facts
– Director: Chris Nelson
– Screenplay: Steve Bloom, Randall Green
– Novel: The Stand-In by Steve Bloom, published October 2017
– Runtime: 90 minutes
– Released: April 12, 2019, on Netflix
– Score: 6.4/10
The movie is worth watching for the first hour. The jokes are sharp, the premise is fresh, and Centineo is a pleasure to watch. The final act is weaker, but it does not sink the whole. The Perfect Date is a good teen romantic comedy that never quite becomes a great one.
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