In "Perfect Opposites," Drew and Julia, two college grads from "a school in the Midwest," decide to head to L.A. to start life together as a committed couple (not much of a move, as it turns out, since the college scenes were actually filmed at USC). However, in no time at all, the pressures of trying to establish their careers, combined with Drew's innate fear of commitment, end up putting a serious strain on the relationship.
"Perfect Opposites" is a fairly conventional romantic comedy that does at least offer a few flashes of insight into the complexities of man/woman relationships, even though the motivations for some of the characters' actions are strangely arbitrary and inscrutable at times. Nevertheless, as the complications arise, we find ourselves identifying with the two main characters more than we expect to at the beginning of the story. Unfortunately, the film insists on parading a bunch of cutesy L.A. stereotypes before the camera, severely undercutting the sense of reality it establishes in the scenes between Julia and Drew. There is one very funny scene in which Drew's old college roommate lays out his theory about where men and women fit in the evolutionary scheme of things, but the film doesn't achieve that level of comic cleverness very often.
As Drew and Julia, Martin Henderson and Piper Perabo make an attractive, likable couple, and the secondary performers do what they can with the characters they've been handed.
"Perfect Opposites" is a hard film to call because it feels both artificial and realistic in roughly equal measure. It takes a slightly more mature view of the world than most films of its type, building to a final scene that is a tad more thoughtful than what we are accustomed to in a romantic comedy. For that reason alone it deserves some recognition.
