The Perfect Man

The Perfect Man
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Mark Rosman
Produced by	Billy Higgins
Written by	Gina Wendkos (story by) Mike McQuown, Heather Robinson, and Katie Torpey
Starring	Hilary Duff Heather Locklear Chris Noth Mike O'Malley Ben Feldman Vanessa Lengies Caroline Rhea
Music by	Christophe Beck
Cinematography	John R. Leonetti
Edited by	Cara Silverman
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date	June 17, 2005 (2005-06-17) (U.S.)
Running time	100 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$25 million
Box office	$19,770,475

The Perfect Man is a 2005 romantic comedy film directed by Mark Rosman and written by Gina Wendkos. It stars Hilary Duff, Heather Locklear and Chris Noth. Filming of the movie began in May 2004. The film received mostly negative reviews from critics and the film was a box office loss.

Teenager Holly Hamilton (Hilary Duff) is tired of moving every time her single mom Jean (Heather Locklear) is through with her latest mistake of a man. To prevent her mother from making another bad decision, Holly has an idea: create a secret admirer who is the perfect man. But things spin out of control and Holly has to improvise.

Single mother Jean (Heather Locklear) relocates every time she gets her heart broken by another guy, much to the dismay of her teenage daughter, Holly (Hilary Duff). Holly devises a plan to invent a secret admirer for her mother, so she'll be happy and not have to relocate anymore. Holly overhears her friend Amy's (Vanessa Lengies) uncle Ben (Chris Noth) ordering flowers for a woman, and decides to use his advice on women (which she acquires by telling him she needs help for a school project on romance). Following Ben's advice, she sends her mother orchids and other gifts and love notes, and is soon communicating with her mother as this fictitious admirer (who Holly names Ben) via the internet. As her mother becomes more interested, Holly has to find a photo of this admirer. She sends one of the real Ben, and then devises a reason why they can't meet in person, claiming he is working in China. While she is developing the online romance between her mother and fake Ben, and preventing her mother and the real Ben from meeting in person, she finds herself drawn to a cute, artistic boy in her class, Adam (Ben Feldman), but is unwilling to get close to anyone due to her history of being uprooted and having to say goodbye so often.

As the charade continues, and as Holly spends more time with Ben while picking his brain for romance tips, she slowly begins to see qualities in Ben which make her believe he is her mother's 'perfect man.' Unfortunately there is no way her mother can ever meet the real Ben without Holly's plan being exposed. Holly asks help from Adam to disguise as Ben in the telephone and break up with Jean. But he fails, as he is revealed to be harboring feelings for Holly as well, in effect telling Holly's mother the opposite of what is planned.