Noah Centineo’s latest Netflix romcom, The Perfect Date, dropped on Friday. Since then, the reviews have been rolling in, and they’re… not exactly glowing. Ouch.
The movie stars Noah, obviously, as well as Riverdale’s Camila Mendes and Laura Marano of Austin & Ally fame. With the help of his best friend, Noah’s character, who possesses what has to be one of the fakest-sounding names ever, Brooks Rattigan, creates an app that allows girls to book dates with him, all in an effort to earn enough money to go to Yale for college.
While going on all of these dates, Brooks is also pursuing the rich, popular girl (played by Mendes) but ends up realising that the girl of his dreams was right beside him all along.
If it sounds generic, that’s because it is, and most reviewers seem to agree.
Writing for Vox, Constance Grady deemed the movie ‘fine’, ranking it below To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before but above Sierra Burgess Is A Loser.
Vice’s Nicole Clark calls the movie ‘mediocre’, but adds that it delivers on its main purpose – to fulfil the audience’s desire to see Centineo play the Dream Boyfriend, again and again and again.
The movie has a 67% rating on Rotten Tomatoes’ Tomatometer, compared to To All The Boys’ 97%, which still puts it ahead of Sierra Burgess’ 64% rating.
For the first half-hour of the movie, Brooks is pretty insufferable, and hard to root for. As the movie goes on and he learns more about the kind of person he is and wants to be, he improves, and the movie does too, but it’s a big ask to expect audiences to sit and wait that long for a romcom to become enjoyable when there are so many wonderful romcoms out there.
The script tries to be funny by including a lot of banter, sarcastic quips and pop culture references in the characters’ dialogue, but the delivery feels forced and as a result, falls flat.
The movie does give Centineo more space to explore his funny side, particularly with all of the dates his character goes on, and Nicole Clark agrees, writing that “the film’s funniest bits” can be found in these scenes.
One refreshing aspect of the film was the inclusion of a (presumably) gay best friend, who isn’t a camp caricature and whose sexuality isn’t the sum-total of his personality – there’s no big ‘coming out’ moment, just a moment when Brooks realises his friend is blushing after serving a customer he likes.
Laura Marano, who plays Celia, definitely piqued my interest – younger readers may know her from Austin and Ally, but since I wasn’t watching Disney Channel originals while at university, I’d never seen her before now. She does a great job as the dry and at-times-abrasive Celia, and I hope this isn’t the last we see of her.
Sidenote, but apparently this isn’t Centineo and Marano’s first time working together: Noah appeared on Austin and Ally back in the day. Talk about a glow up!
The whole time I was watching ‘The Perfect Date’ , I could only think of when they were Ally and Dallas .
Oh how the turn tables! pic.twitter.com/gPgJmU225n— kelsey (@kelsey_argo) April 13, 2019
Overall, I enjoyed the movie more than I expected to based on the reviews, but it’s not something I’d necessarily come back to like I would with To All The Boys, and that definitely seems to be the consensus amongst critics. It’s an enjoyable enough way to spend a Saturday night, especially if you somehow still can’t get enough of Noah Centineo.
I felt bad for myself too..
The Perfect Date, 2019 pic.twitter.com/FKoSPKuxeO
— Glenn kharlo Data (@data0214) April 12, 2019