Publications
Partners
What it's about:
After a painful breakup, successful lobbyist Leah Vaughn jumps into a passionate relationship with a charming stranger. When her ex-boyfriend resurfaces in her life, she has to figure out whom she should trust and whom she should fear.
What we thought:
The first thing that attracted me to this movie is the cast, the lead actors are all easy on the eyes: Sanaa Lathan (Love & Basketball, Brown Sugar), Morris Chestnut (Boyz n the Hood, The Best Man) and Michael Ealy (Think Like A Man, About Last Night).
This could also very well be the reason the movie was number one at the US box office last week.
But don’t be fooled not even the eye-candy can save this run-of-the-mill stalker-thriller from becoming a tragedy.
You know how the story goes: Successful lobbyist Leah (Lathan) has a fall out with her boyfriend Dave (Chestnut), at 36 she’s tired of playing the dating game; she wants a ring and family. When Dave can’t commit she kicks him to the curb.
Not long thereafter she meets Carter (Ealy) a guy she had a “moment” with at a coffee shop. This time around he comes to her rescue when she tries to fend off some unwanted attention at the bar one night. Carter sweeps her off her feet and it’s not long before the two are dating. He’s charming, attentive, adventurous basically “the perfect guy”. She takes him home to meet the folks and he even wins over her unfriendly father (Charles S. Dutton).
The romance comes to an abrupt halt when Carter finally reveals his true colours. But Leah soon finds that she can’t get rid of the perfect guy when he becomes her worst nightmare and makes her life a living hell. And by now you can guess where this is going.
If you’ve seen one stalker flick you’ve seen them all. The film really doesn’t bring anything new to the table.
I’m probably the target audience for this somewhat cautionary tale but I found it very hard to believe that an intelligent, independent woman would let her guard down with a total stranger this easily.
The story moves so fast there is no build-up at all, Carter goes from nice guy to obsessed in the blink of an eye. And the stalking isn’t anything really creepy besides the part where Carter licks Leah’s toothbrush when he breaks into her house. (Eww!)
With such a great cast it is a real shame that the script let them down. The only interesting character here is Carter; Micheal Ealy really had the psycho guy down to the T: crazy eyes, jaw tick and other strange quirks.
Don’t let the perfect looking cast fool you, The Perfect Guy is far from perfect.
