Perfect Opposites (2004)

User Rating:

5.6/10   

Director:

Matt Cooper

Writers:

Matt Cooper (writer)
Stewart J. Zully (writer)

Release Date:

7 April 2005 (Hungary)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Plot:

The story of two college graduates from the Midwest who move to Los Angeles, where their love is tested for the first time.

Plot Keywords:

Relationship | Priorities | Independent Film

Cast

Martin Henderson	...	Drew Curtis
Piper Perabo	...	Julia Bishop
Jason Winer	...	Danny
Andrew Keegan	...	Trey Reynolds
Marisa Theodore	...	Ice Cream Attendant
Kathleen Wilhoite	...	Terri Curtis
Jennifer Tilly	...	Elyse Steinberg
Artie Lange	...	Lenny Steinberg
Derek Basco	...	Katute
Joe Pantoliano	...	Louis Carbonelli
Jennifer Julian	...	Yogurt Attendant
Cheryl Reeves	...	Katie
Nichole Hiltz	...	Celeste
Aaron Paul	...	Monty Brandt
Jesse Capelli	...	Aubrey (as Jenny Leone)

Also Known As:

A Piece of My Heart (USA) (TV title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for sexual content, language and brief drug material. (edited for re-rating)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

Australia:M | Netherlands:12 | South Korea:15 | USA:PG-13 (edited for re-rating) | USA:R (original rating)

Filming Locations:

Bovard Administration Building, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Vault

Soundtrack:

Wait A Minute

Pure joy...

Any movie that begins with a title in written like: "A film made by everyone who worked in it", is a movie that was realized with people having fun; people enjoying the term of "filmmaking". It shows in "Perfect Opposites" that everybody worked with happiness and dedication. It's a comedy, but it's well made, funny and good.

The story is told by Drew, played naturally and confidently by Martin Henderson. He wants the viewer to know what happen to him and a girl he is in love with. He places himself in Los Angeles about to get it on with her, but suddenly the movie stops. Drew has stopped it; to go back in time and tell us how both of them met (it has been done before, but it's constantly repeated here and it works every time)…Julia is the name of the girl.

There was a movie I saw a long time ago about some girls struggling for their life and trying to be independent, and one of them wanted to be a singer. It was called "Coyote Ugly", and I don't remember liking the movie very much, but the girl in the main role; a beautiful and talented actress called Piper Perabo who illuminated the screen and still does today, here as Julia.

Julia and Drew suffer every couple's problems, and the movie does a very good job putting them on screen. Drew's friend Danny (Jason Winer) has a theory about the monogamy of men: "They can't have sex with one woman only". And Drew starts to think about that and concludes that if he stays with Julia he'll have sex with only one woman in his life.

But he loves her, and although she loves him and it should be enough, we know that most of the time it's not. They become friends of an older couple (a null Jennifer Tilly and a wonderful Artie Lange) who gives advice to each of them when they go through rough times. It happens that we know what we want but we are not able to show it.

The movie is an example of the comedies with pleasure we should be getting every week in theaters. Pieces about people with feelings and aspirations…Like Drew, who works for Louis (an excellent Joe Pantoliano) and forgets about Julia. But we laugh then, because they are very similar and they find themselves because of it; and we smile when they kiss with passion.

Director Matt Cooper causes that effect on us, and he should be proud. Stewart Zully, who wrote the picture with Cooper, should be proud too. They do their best to skip the clichés of the genre, and they skip a lot of them. And the few they show are so in the tone of the film that they don't seem like clichés. They are connected to the characters and their forms of being, and we believe it.

Because in every romantic comedy, whether good or bad, the clichés are just clichés because they need to be in the film. Not here; this is a comedy at a different level, away from everything you've seen lately. Take my word.