Grant Dillard
Staff writer
Noah Centineo has slowly been building a reputation as Netflix’s poster boy, given how many Netflix original films he’s been involved with. Last year, Netflix gave viewers not one, but two films starring Centineo as the charming male love interest: those films being “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” and “Sierra Burgess is a Loser.” With Centineo’s third Netflix original film, “The Perfect Date,” is the third time a charm?
Boots Ratigan (Noah Centineo) is a high school student who has a set goal of getting into Yale, but he unfortunately doesn’t have the money for it. That is until he creates an app which allows people to pay for him to be a stand-in boyfriend for almost any occasion. Along the way, Boots also gets help from Celia Lieberman (Laura Marano) a rich girl who actually inspired the idea of the app to begin with. At first Boots and Celia see themselves as helpful acquaintances; but sure enough, they start to fall in love along the way.
The premise of someone being a stand-in boyfriend for multiple dates sounds interesting enough, and has the potential for many comedic opportunities. In fact, once Boots starts work on his app after a dreadfully slow first 20 to 25 minutes of setting things up, the film does start to pick up the pace. An entertaining montage showcases Rattigan going on many dates with several guises, including as a salsa dancer, a cowboy and an art fanatic. Seeing Boots put on all these different personas for each date is actually quite humorous, and is where the film is the most entertaining.
Unfortunately, that’s the only time that the film’s unique premise is really delved into. This wouldn’t be too bad if the main plot itself was interesting, which is unfortunately not the case. The story of Boots and Celia slowly bonding over the course of the film, while also focusing on Boots trying to get into Yale is just uninteresting to say the least. There’s no charming moments on screen, no good comedy, nothing of substance overall. If anything, the dating app premise seems like a marketing gimmick just to trick people into watching a boring and bare-bones romance film.
It doesn’t help that the two leads don’t have much chemistry together, if any. Really, it feels like these two fall in love, simply because the script demands it, as nothing about their blooming romance feels genuine. Centineo’s previous romance films, specifically “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” has shown that the young actor can have good chemistry with a female co-star; so in this case, it seems the script is what lets this love story down. This is really a shame, as a good dynamic between the two main characters would have helped make the film more entertaining than it is.
The only somewhat decent thing in the entire film has to be the third act, in which Boots realizes that his ambitions for life haven’t exactly made him the best person, and ends up having to choose a different path in life to become better. It’s honestly a really good life lesson, in that one’s life can still be good even without reaching the goals one may have. This moral alone makes the film worth watching at least once, at least for those who can make it through the previous two acts without falling asleep.
What could have been an entertaining rom-com turns out to be quite the endurance test, as it’s unlikely for anyone to make it through without dozing off at least once or twice. Hopefully Noah Centineo is given better projects in the future, which is actually quite possible given his popularity and how many projects he’s been given. As for this film, definitely give it a pass.
