PERFECT ROMANCE DIRECTOR Douglas Barr CAST: Kathleen Quinlan, Lod Heuring, Henry Ian Cusick, JR Bourne, Michael Trucco PLOT: The mother of a young divorcee places an ad on her daughter’s behalf on a lonely hearts internet website but the person who responds fits her own ideal of a suitable partner. The daughter is still hung up on her musician ex-husband. WORDS Marilyn Moss
Perfect Romance is a friendly little made-for-television romantic comedy that snuggles up to its female viewers in an effort to get friendly. It’s not all mawkish or burdened with cliches, as we would expect from something this familiar. Kathleen Quinlan, always fun to watch, plays a mother searching on the Internet for her divorced daughter’s perfect match. Quinlan practically saves the show in this one, making the shenanigans all the more pleasant to bear. Director Douglas Barr has fun with the story by Allison Burnett and keeps the pace breezy yet never rushed. Quinlan plays Tess Gallagher, a middle-aged widow who feels slightly sorry for her young, divorced single-mom daughter, Jenny (Lori Heuring). So Tess does what any 21st century mother would do: she gets busy on the Internet and hooks up with an online dating service. She comes up with a charming fellow named Peter (Henry Ian Cusick), a young Brit who is a college professor. Peter has just arrived in the States thinking he was about to be married but now finds that his intended has skipped on him and that he’s all alone. So he, too, does the sensible thing and goes online looking for the perfect romance. Tess has posted Jenny’s photo on the dating site, so when Peter corresponds with Tess, it’s Jenny’s face he sees and, of course, thinks he will meet. When a meeting does take place, all does not go as Tess planned. It may just be that she and Peter have more in common despite their age difference. Also, it may be that Jenny has been hanging around another man of her dreams without even knowing it. As it turns out, a friend named Miles (Michael Trucco), who has been a good buddy to both women, now seems to have more to offer Jenny than she previously believed. So goes the entanglement a la 2004 when issues of gender, sex and socioecononaic status have gotten the best of romance —even romance on Lifetime. Can a younger man and an older woman find the “perfect romance”? Only the script of this pleasant but still very slight romantic comedy knows. Viewers will likely find the story engaging and the actors not too difficult to enjoy.
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APRIL 17, 2017