For any teen movie to be successful, it must first have a firm understanding of what it is and, more importantly, what it is not. Spend-happy teen theater-goers aren't looking for Oscar gold or a contrived public service announcement; they want to see young, hip characters who bumble, joke and sex their ways out of situations that most American kids can relate to. The Perfect Score, a movie about a group of teens who conspire to steal the answers to the SAT, must have only gotten half of the blueprint. It keeps its toes inside the lines of predictable teen comedy but occasionally stumbles along the edge of irritating moral erudition. The result is a flawed but entertaining little film that will leave you with at least a grin on your face; after all, what teen can't relate to the horrors of standardized testing?
The Perfect Score tells the tale of six high school students who are merely a good SAT score away from moving on with their lives and fulfilling their dreams. Kyle (Chris Evans) is an average Joe who has longed to be a Cornell architecture student since he was a child. Kyle's friend Matty (Bryan Greenberg) made a promise that he would join his girlfriend at the University of Maryland. When both guys are informed that their test scores are keeping them out of their first-choice schools, they decide to fight back against the evil College Board and steal the answers in advance. They enlist the help of Francesca (Scarlett Johansson), a rich girl seeking adventure and whose father conveniently owns the Educational Testing Services (ETS) building. Along the way, Anna (Erika Christensen), a class salutatorian who "just froze" on the last SAT, Desmond (Darius Miles), a sincere basketball phenom who needs a sports scholarship, and Roy (Leonardo Nam), a goofy stoner with hidden smarts, hear of the heist and decide to join in.
There's no point in denying the fact that these kids are flat-out stereotypes—the goody-goody who wants to break free, the sarcastic, rebellious punk girl—but there is something positive to be said about the value of predictable characters. You feel like you know these kids; they are your friends, or are at least reminiscent of students in your own high school. But despite the feel of having an ensemble cast, not all of the cheaters are created equal. Johansson steals most scenes with her snarky jibes while Nam is utterly hilarious with nearly every gesture, facial expression and line he delivers, from his surprising entrance to the very last shot of the movie. Despite the relative blandness of the other four characters, as a whole, the personalities of this Princeton Review gang bounce off and mesh with each other well enough to be downright likeable.
In addition, the kids seem to have a ball during their little caper, constantly cracking jokes about the SAT, college and themselves. Given how much they seem to be enjoying the adventure, you can't help but enjoy being along for the ride. Score thankfully opts for some deprecating wit instead of the more obvious gross-out comedy that has become common in teen movies. "If I don't get into Maryland, my life is [crap]. And it's not even my [crap]!" complains Greenberg about taking over the family septic business.
It's a very good thing that the characters are endearing, because without them, the half-hearted plot of Score fails almost as miserably as a kid without number-two pencils on test day. Despite its intriguing original theme of rebellion and nonconformity, the film quickly devolves into a sloppy jumble of poorly tied dramas.
Parental neglect, the dangers of drugs, long-distance relationships, the pressures of academic overachievement, they're all here in some form. There's even a Matrix parody, because we haven't seen anything like that before. It's almost as if the writers threw every teenage-related issue onto film in the misguided hope that one of them would strike a chord with the audience. Instead, none of these mini-plots faced by each character is developed enough, and the last third of Score ends up feeling like a compilation of hasty after-school specials preaching the values of honesty and working together (remember what I said about what teen movies should not be?).
Even the main, overarching conflict of the film—rebellion against a corrupt system that attempts to reduce millions of creative, ambitious and unique kids into numbers—is not played out very well. Kyle and Matty seem too filled with random angst against ETS for us to empathize with their cause. The morality of it all is also, surprisingly, mostly a non-issue, as the students approach their grand theft with the attitude of kids cutting in a lunch line. The movie manages to resolve its tangles gracefully but in a way that leaves you wondering what the point of it all really was.
Although The Perfect Score could have done a much better job with its interesting subject matter, it also could have fared much, much worse. The plot struggles, but the interesting characters and humorous presentation keep it afloat. If you're a high schooler with any interest in the subject matter then give this movie a shot, because unlike the SAT, seeing a mediocre movie won't haunt you for the next four years.
The Perfect Score is rated PG-13 for language, sexual content and some drug references.
Terry Li. Terry Li is a senior in the magnet program who enjoys writing feature articles and reviews. His obsessions are playing videogames, watching TV, and surfing the Internet. He plays tennis and volleyball, and is on Blair's boys volleyball team in the spring. He came to … More »
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