Perfect (1985)

User Rating:

3.8/10   

Director:

James Bridges

Writers:

Aaron Latham (articles)
Aaron Latham (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

7 June 1985 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Tagline:

John Travolta and Jamie Lee Curtis work up a sweat together!

Plot:

A female aerobics instructor meets a male reporter doing a story on health clubs, but it isn't love at first sight. |

Plot Keywords:

Aerobics | Courtroom | Laptop Computer | Birthday Cake | Fitness

Awards:

3 nominations

Cast

Ramey Ellis	...	City News Receptionist
Alma Beltran	...	Grieving Woman
Perla Walter	...	Grieving Woman
Gina Morelli	...	Grieving Woman
John Travolta	...	Adam
John Napierala	...	City News Editor
Stefan Gierasch	...	Charlie
Jann Wenner	...	Mark Roth
Anne De Salvo	...	Frankie
Philippe Delgrange	...	Maitre d' in New York
Tom Schiller	...	Carly Simon's Friend
Paul Kent	...	Judge
Murphy Dunne	...	Peckerman
Kenneth Welsh	...	Joe McKenzie
Michael Laskin	...	Government Prosecutor

Runtime:

115 min | Canada:128 min (Ontario)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Canada:A (Nova Scotia) | Canada:14A (Ontario) | Iceland:L | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Finland:K-12 | Norway:12 (1985) | Peru:14 | Sweden:7 | UK:15 | USA:R | West Germany:16 | Netherlands:AL

Filming Locations:

Alabama Hills, Lone Pine, California, USA

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

The newspaper photo of Jamie Lee Curtis's character with her swim coach is from Love Letters (1983/II).

Quotes:

Linda: It's a lot more fun looking for Mr. Goodbody than Mr. Goodbar.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "SexTV: Dispensing Morality/Paul Barresi/Twist of Faith (#7.19)" (2005)

Soundtrack:

Alone In The Dark

Unintentionally hilarious in places, but Curtis is profoundly likable

Made during the heyday of the aerobics craze, Perfect seemed like a great idea for the studio Columbia to cash in on a trend and more... . Like Travolta's breakthrough picture Saturday Night Fever and Urban Cowboy, Travolta's other collaboration with director James Bridges, it was based on a series of news articles focused on a trend and lifestyle. But in 1983 Flashdance, maybe the quintessential high concept picture, came out, a movie, with no plot to speak of, which was set to an up-tempo chic pop soundtrack and contained a lot of images with a dancing Jennifer Beals double, that were easily marketable to a big audience. And they went to see it in big numbers. Perfect, unfortunately for the studio, came out in theaters when the aerobics craze had already reached it's peak.

Perfect contains the same elements that made Flashdance a big commercial success: thin plotting and characterization, an up-tempo pop soundtrack and lots of images of people dancing to the music in sequences that don't seem to further the plot or deepen characterization. But Flashdance didn't pretend to be much more than what it is: namely a cheap piece of fluff. Perfect, on the other hand, strives for something a little more worthwhile, but fails on those accounts. Bridges put in some ethical comments on the profession of journalism. And he also tried to put in a potentially interesting thriller-storyline around the McKenzie character. But these are soon discarded for the romantic storyline between Curtis and Travolta, that starts out in a playful way but soon turns tiresome due to bad plotting and characterization. That's not to say that Curtis and Travolta are bad in this. Curtis, who seems incapable to give an unlikeable performance, especially does her best and nearly lifts the movie with her enthusiasm.

What's left of Perfect are a couple of hilariously great aerobics scenes, in which Curtis gives her all, a hilariously great male stripper scene and some really bad hair moments. So, bad movie aficionado's, like me, and Curtis fans, like me, will find something to like in this. Therefore my rating is 6 out of 10.