Review: The Perfect Score (* 1/2)

THE PERFECT SCORE
A film review by Steve Rhodes

Copyright 2004 Steve Rhodes

RATING (0 TO ****): * 1/2


In THE PERFECT SCORE, six actors several years too old for their parts play
high school students suffering severe cases of SAT anxiety. I don't know
what SAT scores these actors got in real life, but their acting scores in
this film are very low. The actors' penchant for mumbling their lines is
made worse by the film's loud and oppressive music track.



The plot has Francesca (Scarlett Johansson), Anna (Erika Christensen), Kyle
(Chris Evans), Matty (Bryan Greenberg), Desmond (Darius Miles) and Roy
(Leonardo Nam) deciding that they will steal the answers to the next SAT.
Although each has their own reasons for this, the general motivation is so
that they can get into their favorite college. One of them has a nightmare
about a bum on the street with a placard that blames his destitute condition
in life to poor results on his SAT.



The characters are stereotypes and completely unbelievable. Anna, for
example, is the second best student in school -- although not the
valedictorian, she keeps pointing out -- but her initial SAT score was low
because she froze in the middle of the exam and couldn't do anything after
that. What caused this major shutdown of her brain on such a key day?
After reading a math word problem about a man and a woman boarding a train,
her mind couldn't stop wondering about where these fictional people were
going and why.



In a comedy that has only a couple of briefly funny episodes, the best --
which I'm told is in the trailers -- has the kids accidentally shredding
rather than photocopying the pilfered answers when they first try to steal
them. The other small laughs come from pratfalls, as Roy, the group's
stoner/geek, keeps getting tripped by his baggy, beltless pants.



The way the group finally steals the test and how they use it is really,
really ridiculous and a complete cop-out. No matter what you think about
the rest of the movie, you'll be groaning about its awful ending.



THE PERFECT SCORE runs 1:33. The film is rated PG-13 for "language, sexual
content and some drug references" and would be acceptable for kids around 12
and up.



My son Jeffrey, age 14, gave it ** 1/2. He said that the movie was nothing
special but that it was fun and had funny characters.



The film opens nationwide in the United States on Friday, January 30, 2004.
In the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the AMC and the Century
theaters.



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