“He’s destroyed everything I care about and I’m not going to roll over,” Leah.

Action movies can take various forms including drama, mysteries or even comedy. In the case of The Perfect Guy, the action starts off in the form of a thriller turned action. Sanaa Lathen stars as Leah, a mild-mannered business woman with a mild-mannered boyfriend, Dave (Morris Chestnut). Leah decides that she is ready to get married and start a family, however, Dave’s life experiences leaves him with marriage-phobia. As a result, Leah breaks up with Dave.

Lurking in the background is Carter, masterfully played by Michael Ealy. Leah has run into Carter a number of times at the coffee shop and then one day he saves her from a drunk masher at a bar. The two begin a beautiful relationship.

Carter is the perfect guy - attentive, caring and smart. Unfortunately he turns out to be a sociopath and her life is suddenly in danger. Like most women in danger, Leah seeks police protection, unfortunately the police can’t help her until something actually happens. Sound familiar?

The movie is a perfect vehicle for a lesson in safety. On the surface, Carter appeared to be the perfect man, however, under that calm exterior was a dangerous individual who was capable of murder. It’s an important life lesson in that all is not always as it seems.

Great movie moments:

The director does an excellent job with the cinematography. The background and lighting actually become a character in the film and adds a level of darkness to Carter’s character.

The beginning of the movie is a chick-flick so much of the action doesn’t take place until late in the film, but when it does start you will be sitting on the edge of your seat, if not yelling out to the characters on the screen.

The director and Sanaa’s ability to play the character takes us on a visual journey watching the progression of Leah’s character from mild-mannered to woman fully capable of protecting herself. We also watch Carter’s character go from the hunter to the hunted.

Not so great movie moments:

As much as Dave is a key element to the story of how Leah gets to where she is, it almost feels as if not enough attention was given to his character. We don’t have the opportunity to bond with him before he exits and when he re-enters the story line, it seems to take Leah’s character backwards rather than forward.

Michael Ealy fans will be excited to see him in the movie, however it’s tough watching him play such a bad guy.

I waited to see this movie on DVD rather than the big screen. Sometimes action movies lose in the translation from big screen to television, but this is not the case with The Perfect Guy.

Overall I found this to be a reasonable good movie. I would give it a 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Details:

Director: David Rosenthal

Rating: PG-13

Running time: 1 hr 40 minutes



I rented this movie with my own funds from the Video Store. I have not been compensated for this review.