The Perfect Guy (2015 film)

Plot

Successful lobbyist Leah Vaughn (Sanaa Lathan) is unhappy in her relationship with her boyfriend Dave King (Morris Chestnut), who refuses to commit to her wishes of starting a family, causing them to break up. Two months later, she meets the charming Carter Duncan (Michael Ealy), who works in IT for another company. They quickly grow close and he works his way into the hearts of her friends as well as her mother and father. On their way home from a trip to San Francisco to meet her parents, a stranger at a gas station asks Leah about Carter's Dodge Charger. Carter viciously attacks the man before Carter and a mortified Leah drives off when the station's owner orders them to leave. Distraught over his actions, Leah decides to break up with him that night.

Over the next several weeks, Carter stalks Leah at her job and makes numerous phone calls, even after she changes her phone number. Unbeknownst to her, he also intrudes into her house with her spare house key, feeling around her belongings, hacking into her computer and abducting her cat. She finally decides to go to the police, meeting with Detective Hansen (Holt McCallany) who advises her to keep note of any further attempts Carter makes to contact her. Leah later finds a threatening note and a single red rose attached to her car and files a restraining order against Carter, causing him to lose his job. Some time later, Dave contacts Leah about rekindling their relationship and Leah eagerly agrees. One night, Leah and Dave find Carter watching them at a restaurant, and Dave grimly warns him to stay away. They still notify the police and, after Hansen interrogates Carter over the violation, Carter feigns innocence, stating he had no idea she was there and that Dave was aggressive towards him. Hansen lets him go.

One night, Leah's neighbour, Mrs. McCarthy (Tess Harper), discovers Carter inside Leah's house, and Carter pushes her down the stairs, killing her. Carter secretly videotapes Leah and Dave as they sleep and make love and uses Leah's work email account to send the video to her co-workers and her business's clients, causing her to be suspended from her job. Carter also sabotages Dave's car, causing it to crash, and suffocates the injured Dave.

Both Leah and Hansen are certain that Carter is involved in Dave's death, though they lack the evidence necessary to incriminate him. After investigating further, Hansen learns that Carter's real name is Robert Adams, and that he changed his identity after a similar series of harassment. He subtly tells Leah to take care of him on her own if necessary, leading her to buy a shotgun and shells. Leah discovers Robert, with a new identity, with another woman. She frightens her off and files another restraining order against him in front his new employers, once again getting him fired. She then manages to find a hideout of his where he monitors her, as well as finding her cat. She destroys his numerous computers and leaves, daring him to come after her again.

That night, Robert breaks into Leah's home and, after luring him to an empty room, she aims her gun at him. After managing to knock the gun out of her hand, a struggle ensues, which ends with her shooting him twice with bean bag rounds in an attempt to immobilize him. After he continues to advance, she shoots him with a real bullet and kills him. A now relieved Leah reports Robert to Hansen as an intruder, and police cart his corpse out of her house.

Cast

Production

Principal photography for The Perfect Guy began on August 6, 2014, in Los Angeles. The film was shot mostly at night using Sony digital cameras and anamorphic lenses. Much of the shooting used available light to create a “mysterious” look because “David wanted the film to be dark,” according to the film's director of photography Peter Simonite. The Perfect Guy wrapped up its 34-day LA shoot in mid-September 2014.

Release

On June 3, 2015, Screen Gems debuted the first official trailer for The Perfect Guy on USA Today′s website. The film was released in the Dolby Vision format in Dolby Cinema in North America.

The Perfect Guy grossed $57 million in the United States and Canada and over $3.2 million in other territories for a worldwide total of over $60.3 million, against a budget of $12 million. Sony opted not to screen The Perfect Guy for critics or have Thursday night previews for the film. The film opened on Friday, September 11, 2015, earning $9.9 million on its opening day. For the weekend, the film finished first at the box office grossing $25.9 million at 2,221 North American theaters. The Perfect Guy became available for purchase on DVD and Blu-ray on December 29, 2015.

Reception

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 20% based on 40 reviews and has an average rating of 3.9/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "The Perfect Guy threatens to tip into enjoyably depraved territory, but ultimately settles for timid thriller clichés." Metacritic gives the film a score of 36 out of 100 based on 13 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". On CinemaScore, audiences gave the film an average grade of "A-" on an A+ to F scale.