Sometimes, you see a title while scrolling through streaming services and you think, why not?  At least that is how I imagine some people make their at-home cinematic choices.  As a Catholic film reviewer, my picks are a little more deliberate, though I have nothing against randomness.  Indeed, being open to whatever comes your way is akin to being receptive to God’s plan for your life.  There is wisdom in living life in this manner.  Still, since most of the familiar films have been covered by The Legionnaire, I have to read descriptions or watch previews in order to get a sense of something.  However, with a word like “perfect” in the appellation, I already have something to say since only God is perfect.  You will have to read this treatment of The Perfect Date (2019) for the rest.

What Brooks Rattigan (Noah Centineo) wants the rest of the world to know before he has anything like The Perfect Dateis that he is ready to change it.  He has identified Yale University as giving him the best chance to do so, though his father, Charlie Rattigan (Matt Walsh), favors the University of Connecticut (UConn).  He has good grades, but to make himself stand out, he needs a good entrance essay.  While debating with Murph (Odiseas Georgiadis), his best friend, about whether to put his mom leaving in the application material, Brooks’ classmate, Reece (Zak Steiner), comes into the sandwich shop in which Brooks and Murph work.  Reece is complaining about having to hang out with his cousin, Celia Lieberman (Laura Marano), even though he is being paid to do so.  Brooks overhears the winging, particularly the money part, and offers to fill in for Reece.  Brooks expects to take her to her preppy high school dance, posing as her boyfriend. Instead, she wants to be dropped off at a café.  Shocked, he convinces her to go to the party anyway, which is where he meets Shelby Pace (Camila Mendes), with whom he is immediately taken.  Shelby invites Brooks and Camila to come to her party.  Celia is not thrilled by this idea, feigning an injury to go home.  Despite Celia’s snarky attitude, she compliments Brooks’ solicitude and suggests that he could make a lot of money going on dates with people living in her upscale neighborhood.  Between that and some insight from Reece about his lifestyle, he comes up with an idea for being the kind of date for people want based on their desires.  Murph creates an app for people to find him, and before long he is getting requests from women to spend time with them.  They skirt the notion that he is now essentially a hooker, though this Catholic is happy to report that sex is not involved.  At any rate, his justification for embarking on this journey is to make money for Yale, even though Charlie is still pushing for UConn.  After going out a number of times, he gets a call from Celia wanting his services for a party where she hopes to impress a guy on whom she has a crush.  The soiree happens to be at Shelby’s house, so that is an added incentive for Brooks.  They are successful in their romantic endeavors to varying degrees.  Of course, this is the point at which cracks begin to appear despite his progress towards his fundraising goal.  First, it is Murph telling Brooks that they never spend time together since he started being an escort.  To rectify this, Brooks promises to keep his Saturday open.  That happens to be the same day that Celia gets him a meeting with Yale’s dean of admissions, Mr. Newhouse (Wayne Pére).  During Brooks’ discussion with Mr. Newhouse, the Yale hopeful lies about being into beekeeping, which is the dean’s favorite hobby.  As they walk out to the waiting Celia, she is confused by their insect discussion.  She accuses Brooks of being a liar, and he throws the accusation back at her since she misled her crush, Franklin (Blaine Kern III).  This seems to quell their spat, and she goes with Brooks to have dinner with Murph.  The night ends with Brooks being called away to a rendezvous and Celia going out with Franklin.  Yet, her date with Franklin did not go as she hoped, which makes it awkward when Brooks calls her to plan their fake public breakup.  Because she is starting to fall for Brooks, she dresses up in her fanciest dress hoping to impress him.  She is also hurt by the things he says during their performance, which she ends with an unplanned slap.  It does get him a kiss from Shelby, and an invite to another dance with her, but the next day at work, Murph has quit.  While going out with an older woman, Brooks gets some good advice on being with the right person.  It leads to him following up with Celia, who hasn’t contacted him since their display, but she ignores him.  As such, it is on to his official time out with Shelby.  At the dance, one of his past dates thanks him for the confidence she got from him, but it means having to admit to Shelby that he had the app.  She calls him out for his dishonesty and walks away.  Celia is there, too, but she also tells him off.  Charlie is waiting at home to talk to his downcast son, who finally lets on the nature of his extracurricular activity.  The conversation underscores how disingenuous he had been with everyone, with Yale and particularly with Celia.  As such, he writes a letter in the form of an admissions essay to Celia after telling her that he is not going to the Ivy League school.  She forgives him, and they have one last date to celebrate.

There is much to celebrate about The Perfect Date.  It has some witty dialog and a happy ending.  Even though Brooks pursues a questionable money-making scheme, this Christian can at least appreciate that it does not involve sex.  At any rate, the obvious lesson to take from the film from a Catholic, or any, perspective is that it is always best to be honest.  Because I talk about that topic often, I should delve deeper, and this one provides the necessary material.  My favorite moment comes when Brooks takes a walk with the old lady.  She tells him that the best way of knowing that you are with the right person is to talk and listen.  It made me think of how to approach a relationship with God.  Of course, there is no lying to God.  You can try to be untruthful with the Divine, but what good is it?  God knows your heart and yourself better than you ever will.  That can sound pompous, but also remember that the All-Knowing, All-Seeing God wants to have a relationship with you.  That takes conversation.  At the same time, understanding that God loves us beyond all measure can turn into a scenario where we just give Him whatever we think He wants.  That is literally what Brooks does with all his dates.  He has them fill out a profile, and he tailors his time with a client based on their needs.  Doing so is as bad as lying.  Further, though it seems like he is listening to the people he goes out with, what he is not doing is listening to his own heart.  That is where God resides, where He speaks to us.  Beyond us giving everything we have over to God, communication with Him involves listening as much as it does talking.  Actually, it can be soundly argued that listening is more important than talking.  Once Brooks realizes how little he had been doing for his friends, he becomes a better person for it.  The same thing can happen with you if you adopt this kind of attitude with God.

You also do not need an attitude to see The Perfect Date.  It is as predictable as the next romantic comedy, but it lacks any kind of seedy humor.  This sounds like a mixed recommendation, but it is actually a sneaky good movie.