Perfect Man

Hilary Duff stars in this comedy as Holly, a teenager whose lovelorn single mom (Heather Locklear) moves the family--including her youngest daughter (Aria Wallace)--to a new state every time she gets dumped, which is often. Their latest residence turns out to be Brooklyn, where the now thoroughly destabilized Holly decides that enough is enough and works to prevent mom from dating yet another local loser. She uses a friend's handsome uncle (Chris Noth) as the unwitting basis for a fictional secret admirer to keep mom occupied, but the deception quickly spins out of control, resulting in some madcap hijinx. Meanwhile, a classmate who is a comic book artist (Ben Feldman) falls for Holly, but she's way too edgy to notice that love has found her instead of her mom. This whimsical plotline may sound familiar to any non-'tweener in the audience, but it works due to the relaxed, natural rapport between Duff and Locklear who share some heartfelt moments of mother-daughter bonding. Plus, no one can squirm in tortured embarrassment quite as effectively as Duff can, and she gets plenty of opportunities. The soundtrack is peppered with Styx songs (singer Dennis DeYoung plays an impersonator of himself) and Vanessa Lengies quietly stands out with plenty of natural grace as Holly's hipster high school buddy.