My independant study - The Perfect Man

For my independent study I have chosen to study “The Perfect Man”. I have chosen this particular film as I enjoyed watching it and found it highly addictive. Since watching it for the first time I have watched it over and over again several times. The perfect man was released in 2005 and since then has had many critics from film reviewers but has had a lot of praise from many female youngsters and therefore the film would be associated with young females. Hillary Duff stars in the film as many girls would relate to her and she has many fans behind her. Hilary Duff has stared in many other teenage ‘chick flicks’ such as ‘Raise your voice’, ‘The Lizzie mcguire movie’ and ‘cheaper by the dozen’ and consequently has a much younger audience and therefore she is ideal for this type of film.

‘The perfect man’ is based upon a single parent family that consists of Holly Hamilton (Hilary Duff) her mum Jean (Heather Locklear) and Holly’s sister Zoe Hamilton (Aria Wallace). Holly is tired and annoyed of her mum moving around after getting dumped by her boyfriends and wants to settle down in the town they have just recently moved to so holly makes up a plan for her mum to fall for the perfect man and for just once for them to settle down. However Holly has to go to desperate measures in order to prevent her mum from finding out her secret plans.

Tzvetan Todorov’s theory can be applied to the perfect man as it follows the basic structure of the three stages. The equilibrium can be recognised in the film when Holly finally settles down in a city in which her mother has recently moved to and finally finds friends and a place where she feels welcome. Holly has never felt like this before and starts to realise that she wants to stay here. However after another failed relationship her mum wants to move cities yet again and consequently causes a disruption within the film and between the family. As holly secretly makes up a man for her mum to fall in love with – “The Perfect Man”, things start to unravel themselves and soon Jean realises her daughter’s secret plans. Jean yet again wants to move away in spite of another failed relationship. A new equilibrium arises towards the end of the film when holly tells her mum that she cant keep running away from her relationships. Jean realises that her daughter is right and finally meets the “perfect man”.

The perfect man is a romantic comedy as it is a humorous over exaggerated storyline that involves and is based around romance. As this type of storyline would not usually happen in “real life” the storyline is seen as a typical love plot. As many people will think this type of storyline would never be expected to happen to them, it gives the viewers hope and fulfils their wishes to an extent in which they are interested and satisfied with the film.

In some ways there is a close bond that has found between Holly and her mum Jean and this shows how different generations can relate to each other and consider other people views and opinions no matter how old or mature they are.

In romance comedies there is usually an obstacle in the way in stopping the romance to happen within the plot. In the perfect man, Holly assumes that the perfect man (Chris Noth) has a fiancée and is getting married, however when Holly trashes the wedding, she finds out that the women is just his friend and realises that he could actually be the perfect man for her mum.

Hilary Duff’s first few acting roles were playing small parts within films and dramas. Her first big part was playing Wendy in the film Casper and then moving on to Lizzie McGuire in which she played the key role and since then has been in films such as Cheaper by the dozen, raise your voice, A Cinderella story. All these films are seen as the typical American films aimed at young teenagers who can relate to Hilary and inspire to be like her. Young girls also aspire to be like Hilary as she has now got a singing career and has released several songs including “wake up”, and “so yesterday”. Hilary was therefore chosen to star in this film in order to get as many viewers possible that already like her, her films and her music carer. “The perfect man” can be seen a film that brings mother and daughter closer together and shows a special bond between each other, as this film is aimed at the younger generation, this is ideal for this type of audience to give a positive effect on them and to give them a sense of closeness between themselves and parents.