THE PERFECT MAN

Year: 2005
USA: Universal Studios
UK: UIP (UK)
Cast: Hilary Duff, Heather Locklear, Chris Noth, Mike O'Malley, Ben Feldman, Vanessa Lengies, Carson Kressley, Amy Acker, Mazin Elsadig, Dennis DeYoung, Marvin Kaye, David Michie, Ashley Newbrough, Michelle Nolden, Darryl Pring, Caroline Rhea, Aria Wallace
Director: Mark Rosman
Country: USA
UK: 100 mins
USA Rated: PG for some mildly suggestive content
UK Certificate: PG contains mild sex references
USA Release Date: 17 June 2005
UK Release Date: 19 August 2005


Synopsis

For the most part, single mom Jean Hamilton (Heather Locklear) is great at raising her teenage daughter Holly (Hilary Duff) and her sister, providing a home and being both a friend and a parent to her daughters. Everything's usually just fine, great even. But then, once a boyfriend enters the picture, well, things start to slide from great. And it's not Holly's boyfriends that are causing the problems...it's her mom's.

To Holly, her mom's dating habits aren't exactly hard to recognize: she picks a guy not nearly good enough, and when the inevitable romance transforms into the unavoidable break-up, Jeans packs up Holly and her little sister and hustles onto the next city, hopeful that the next guy in the next town will be better.

Holly really wants her family to settle down, where she might have a chance at being a normal teenager—maybe even attend her first school dance. But more than that, Holly wants her mother to stop picking romantic duds that only end up breaking her heart. Why can't Jean see how wonderful she is, realize the qualities in herself that endear her to her daughters, be happy with or without romance...in short, see herself through Holly's eyes?

So who better to pick Jean's potential date mate than Holly? Someone to keep Jean from encountering yet more heartache and doomed romance? As her mother's short-lived, new city hopefulness begins to turn to desperation, Holly realizes she has no time to waste and comes up with a plan: she'll invent a suitor for her mother—an amazing, perfect man to woo the single mom and save her from choosing yet another imperfect, second-rate guy.

So what if he doesn't really exist? Or at least, not exactly?

When Jean's interest is piqued by her new secret admirer, Holly finds that it'll take more than emails, letters and gifts to keep her distracted from the attentions of Lenny (Mike O'Malley), Jean's hapless, well-meaning co-worker and current real-life suitor. So she enacts a little identity theft and borrows Ben, her friend's uncle (Chris Noth), as the man behind the attentions—a suave, restaurant owner with looks and charm to spare.

Unfortunately for Holly, Ben may be too charming...at least the "Ben" she creates with the help of her new school buds Adam (Ben Feldman) and Ben's niece Amy (Vanessa Lengies). As Jean and Ben's "relationship" takes off, Holly and her co-conspirators find that maintaining the ruse is making them crazy. But for Holly, what's important is keeping her mother happy and keeping their family in one place long enough to put down roots. Trouble is, Holly's so diverted by the ever increasing, runaway deception that she almost misses her own perfect man when he comes along.

A romantic comedy about holding things together—even when everything threatens to fall apart—Universal Pictures' THE PERFECT MAN stars Hilary Duff, Heather Locklear, Chris Noth and Mike O'Malley, under the direction of Mark Rosman (A CINDERELLA STORY).