Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Perfect Date’ On Netflix, Where Noah Centineo Gets To Be Charming As Hell As The Lead Character

Noah Centineo has made his appearances in Netflix rom-coms over the last year a bit of a mini-industry; memorable turns as the romantic interest in both Sierra Burgess Is A Loser and To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before have made hearts throb with young Netflix users everywhere. But with The Perfect Date, Centineo is the star. Can he carry a story by himself?

THE PERFECT DATE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Brooks Rattigan (Noah Centineo) is determined to get into Yale. He lives in Bridgeport, Connecticut with his dad Charlie (Matt Walsh), an author who got a serious case of writers’ block a number of years ago, causing Brooks’ mom to leave the both of them and start a new family. Brooks’ guidance counselor tells him that, though he has the grades and test scores to get in, he needs something else on his application, something that will stand out more than the usual extra-curricular stuff. He already has a free ride to UConn, where his dad teaches, but he feels the place is like “the girl who lives down the street, eats food in bed and smells like it.”

While working with his buddy Murph (Odiseas Georgiadis) at a sub shop, he overhears his classmate Reese (Zak Steiner), an unrepentant douchebag who drives a BMW i8 (a $150k car, people!) say he has to take his cousin in Greenwich to a school dance, and his uncle will pay him to do it. Brooks volunteers to take the job, if Reese lets him drive the Beemer. When he gets there, he meets Celia Lieberman (Laura Marano), a fiercely independent girl who doesn’t want to wear heels or go to her snooty school’s dance — and doesn’t even want to stay with Brooks in that fancy car.

Brooks convinces her to go, and they end up having a good back-and-forth, because they’re both smart, witty kids. He spies Celia’s popular classmate Shelby Pace (Camila Mendes) and wants to be introduced; Shelby notices him, too, and invites the two of them to a party, but Celia faked an injury so they could leave. But she tells Brooks that she had a good time.

This gives him an idea: He can make money to go to Yale by being the perfect date. Murph makes him an app called The Stand-In, where he can be hired to be a date that’s a blank slate; the person requests what he should dress like, say, and do. The business is a success — and his friendship with Celia blossoms as she helps him get in good with Shelby while he helps her with her crush, Franklin Volley (Blaine Kern III), but Brooks finds himself losing his own personality in the process. He lies to a Yale dean who has a beekeeping hobby, and sees his best buddy Murph grow distant because they haven’t spent any time together.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Well, it’s pretty reminiscent of the other two Netflix YA rom-coms he’s in: Sierra Burgess Is A Loser and To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before.

Performance Worth Watching: Laura Marano gives us serious Sarah Paulson vibes, but we love how she makes Celia her own, and makes us wonder why more people — girls, guys, her parents — don’t see her as a strong, independent thinker and not a mouthy pain in the ass.

Memorable Dialogue: “You know that story about the guy who has to push a boulder up a hill, and every time he gets to the top, it rolls back down and he has to start all over again? That’s what talking to you is like” — Celia to Franklin, who she learns is a local street artist on the side and a complete and total bore.

Single Best Shot: This isn’t a visually-creative film, so we’ll go with Celia slapping Brooks when their “pretend” breakup at a party gets a little too personal for her comfort.

Sex and Skin: Pretty chaste film.

Our Take: The Perfect Date, directed by Chris Nelson (My Dead Ex), and adapted from Steve Bloom’s book The Stand-In by Bloom and Randall Green, is a perfectly serviceable rom-com for people who have enjoyed the YA films Netflix has rolled out of the last couple of years. Centineo has gotten a reputation as a dreamy, easygoing presence as the romantic interest in some of those films (see above), but this time he’s the main character, and he does just fine. He’s charming, smart, and carries off rapid-fire dialogue well His chemistry with Marano, who we’ve already said was our favorite part of the film, is effortless.

But the movie overall feels a listless, not knowing where to take its story. Forget the fact that the film is entirely predictable — as soon as Celia comes down the stairs in her boots we know that she and Brooks were destined to connect romantically by the end of the film. And the standard “misunderstanding that pulls them apart before they get together” plot device isn’t all that strong. The stories of the two of them connecting with their crushes isn’t even all that strong.

What we wish we saw more of was Brooks’ relationship with Murph, a gay teenager of color who’s living in uptight Connecticut. We would have also loved to hear more about Brooks and Charlie, whose story seemed to have a lot of story potential but was completely glossed over; Brooks’ drive likely comes from his mother leaving him and his dad, but it’s mentioned all-too-briefly to make any impact.

Our Call: STREAM IT, mainly for the chemistry between Centineo and Marano. Otherwise, The Perfect Date comes in third place in the trilogy Centineo rom-coms on Netflix.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company’s Co.Create and elsewhere.

Stream The Perfect Date on Netflix