Preposterous ‘Picture Perfect’ More Like Somebody’s Bad Slide Show

Kate’s boss at the Madison Avenue ad agency in “Picture Perfect” isn’t such a bad guy, just a little superficial.

Mr. Mercer cares more about how his employees dress and where they live than about what they produce. He’s more concerned with their lifestyles than with how they do their jobs.

Then again, Kate does work in advertising, where the package is often more important than the product. In fact, that seems also to have been true for the makers of “Picture Perfect,” a brightly wrapped but otherwise undistinguished romantic comedy.

Jennifer Aniston of TV’s “Friends” plays Kate, a talented and unattached young woman whose boss would prefer that her personal life were more settled. So in order to get assigned to a big mustard-company account, Kate pretends she’s engaged to Nick, an attractive young man with whom she happens to have been photographed at a wedding.

When Mr. Mercer insists on meeting Nick (as we always knew he would), Kate tracks Nick down and offers him money to pretend to break up with her at a company dinner party. Nick refuses the cash but goes along with the plan because, of course, he’s attracted to her.

“It really sounds like something right out of ‘The Patty Duke Show,”’ admits Kate, after explaining her scheme to Nick. And although the line is funny, it is, I’m afraid, all too accurate.

Watching the contrived, farfetched and otherwise uninspired “Picture Perfect” helps you to appreciate a film like “My Best Friend’s Wedding,” which included a section in which Julia Roberts’ character pretended to be engaged to her editor, played by Rupert Everett.

In “My Best Friend’s Wedding,” the sequence came to life due to the fantastic chemistry between Roberts and Everett and because the ruse was given the additional twist that Everett’s character was gay. Besides, this premise was just part of that film while in “Picture Perfect” it’s practically the whole enchilada.

If this picture is far from perfect, we could, I suppose, blame that on the curse of “Friends,” whose stars haven’t exactly caused a sensation in their big-screen outings.

I’m especially sorry to see Aniston - my favorite “Friends” friend - fall victim to the curse: Not only is her comic timing terrific (as is that of almost the entire sitcom cast), but there’s something genuinely glamorous about this actress - something that, given the right project, could translate into boxoffice gold.

But Aniston needs to get beyond the boundaries of her TV persona, which requires a weightless form of acting that just isn’t enough for a feature film - even a comedy. I never could really accept, for example, that her sitcom character, Rachel, was in love with Ross (David Schwimmer), but, well, it’s only TV.

It’s quite another thing, however, that the romantic life of Aniston’s movie character is no more credible. And it doesn’t help that Nick is colorless or that the office Lothario on whom Kate has a crush is one-dimensional.

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: “Picture Perfect” Locations: East Sprague, Newport, Coeur d’Alene Cinemas, Post Falls Cinema Six Credits: Directed by Glenn Gordon Caron; starring Jennifer Aniston, Jay Mohr, Kevin Bacon Running time: 1:44 Rating: PG-13