The Perfect Guy

Plot synopsis:
The opening scene shows Leah (Sanaa Lathan) getting dressed for work. Her boyfriend Dave (Morris Chestnut) is still in bed. She kisses him, and he tells her to get back into bed, but she's late for work. She reminds him of a party they are attending that evening.At a coffee shop, Leah orders an iced coffee while catching the eye of a handsome guy further down the counter. They smile. The clerk hands the guy his iced coffee while Leah also reaches for the same cup. He tells her to take it, his pleasure. She blushes and walks away forgetting the coffee. The takes the cup, clearly flustered.That night at the party celebrating their friends wedding anniversary, Leah notices the interaction between Dave and their friends son. Back at home, Leah brings up the topic of marriage and kids. Apparently Dave isn't ready for marriage or kids, and they've agreed not to bring it up again. When they cant come to an agreement, Leah asks him to leave and the split up.Leah throws herself into work in an effort to forget about Dave.One night Leah is meeting her friend Karen for dinner. She's waiting at the bar and receives a text from Karen that her son is sick, and she cant make it. A man approaches her and offers to buy her a drink. She points to her drink and says she already has one. He asks if she's waiting for someone, and she says, yes, my boyfriend. The man persists and asks her to just leave with him instead, she declines, and he continues to bother her. She then hears a mans voice ask if shes been waiting long. Its the guy from the coffee shop. He turns to the bothersome guy and asks, why are you still standing here. The guy finally leaves.Leah thanks, the man, Carter Duncan (Michael Ely) and he says don't mention it. She offers to buy him a drink, and he declines stating hes with co-workers, and they're about to leave. She says "well now, I'm twice in your debt", reminding him of the coffee shop. Next scene, they're having dinner and getting to know each other. There is an obvious attraction. After dinner, they share a passionate kiss, and he gives her his card.The next day at work, Carter phones Leah and she is surprised that he found her. He reminds her that he is an IT specialist. He asks to see her again and takes her to a steamy Reggae club where they dance erotically and end up having sex in the restroom. That night, Leah forgets her keys and retrieves the spare key from a fake rock in her yard. Her neighbor Mrs. McCarthy (Tess Harper) comes out, and Leah introduces Carter as her boyfriend.As their relationship progresses, Leah invites Carter to spend the weekend with her family in San Francisco. There he bonds with her parents by taking her father (Charles Dutton) to a baseball game. Her mother insists that the two sleep in separate rooms and Leah attempts to sneak into Carter's bed. He tells her to respect her parents and sends her back to her own room. This only serves to endear him to Leah.Returning home from San Francisco, Carter professes his love to Leah. Stopping at a gas station, a man compliments Leah about Carter's Dodge Charger. Carter watching from inside the station thinks the man is flirting with Leah. He storms out and viciously attacks the man, beating him to a pulp while Leah screams. He yells at Leah to get into the car when the station's owner orders them to leave at gunpoint saying he's called the police. Leah tells him she needs time, despite his apologies.She later meets Carter for dinner and explains it's over. Carter becomes increasingly agitated and finally slams the table when Leah refuses his efforts to apologize.Over the next several weeks, Carter stalks Leah at her job and her home while calling her non-stop. Despite changing her phone number, Carter continues to call and harass her. Unbeknownst to her, he has been inside her house using the spare house key. He weirdly drinks from a used wine glass and sucks her toothbrush. He also hacks into her computer and steals her cat.At the advice of her friends, she go to the police and meets with Detective Hansen (Holt McCallany). He advises her to notate all future attempts he makes to contact her as this will help her case for a restraining order. Hansen feels something isn't right with Carter and orders a detective to pull his file.Leaving her office one night, Leah finds a single red rose and a note that says, "If I cant have you, no one will." The next morning, a restraining order is served to Carter at his job, and he is subsequently fired.One day Dave calls Leah and tells her he'd like to see her. They meet, and he tells her he has missed her and wants to reconcile. Leah happily agrees. She tells Dave about Carter. One night at dinner, when Leah and Dave are seated, she sees Carter watching them from the bar area. Dave approaches him, and after Carter makes an inappropriate remark about Leah, Dave warns him never to contact her again.Leah again notifies the police and after Hansen brings Carter into the station over the violation of the restraining order. Carter states the restaurant is a public place and in fact, Dave threatened him and if anyone should need a protective order, its him. Before he leaves, Hansen gets physical with Carter and tells him he should be more careful.One night, while Carter is installing cameras inside Leah's house, her neighbor, Mrs. McCarthy walks in and asks what he's doing. He says Leah asked him to come and check on some things, but Mrs. McCarthy says she thought they'd broken up. As he approaches her menacingly, she runs back to her home with Carter hot on her heels. She manages to lock the front door, but Carter grabs her from behind. They struggle toward the basement, and Carter kills her by pushing her down the stairs, causing her to break her neck.A week later, the body is discovered when Mrs. McCarthy's daughter calls the police. Leah sees the crime scene and is visibly distraught when informed of her neighbors death.At his home, via the cameras he watches over Leah and Dave as they sleep and make love. The most disturbing of all is while they are making love, Carter is under Leah's bed listening.The next day at work, Leah's bosses advises her an email containing a video of her and Dave having sex was sent to all the employees and business associates. Leah pleads with her boss, but he suspends her anyway.While in bed, Leah gives Dave a birthday present purchased before their breakup. Its a watch engraved with I will always love you, Leah. Dave says he will never take it off. The next day Dace has a business meeting in Santa Barbara and while there, Carter sabotages David's car by loosening all the lug nuts on his tire. While driving the curved hills, Dace loses control of the car as the wheel loosens, causing it to flip down a hill and seriously injure him. Carter has been closely following him and after the wreck, he goes down to the wreckage and kills the Dave by suffocating him. He also removes Dave's watch.Meanwhile, Leah has been frantically calling Dave, and she falls asleep waiting for him. Hansen and another detective arrive at Leah's home to tell her of Dave's death. Leah collapses in his arms.After the funeral, Leah returns home and falls asleep fully dressed. When she awakens, Dave's watch is on the nightstand.Leah is convinced Carter is involved, but there are no prints anywhere, and Hansen advises her there is no evidence proving otherwise. After investigating Carter, Hansen has learned that Carter is not his real name, and that he changed his identity after a similar series of harassment. He also tells Leah that Carter was shuffled from foster home to foster home and everything he told her is a lie.He tells Leah its his coffee break, and she is furious. She follows him to a coffee shop where he tells her a story about a person who kept getting robbed. This guy bought a 12 gauge shotgun and put two bean packs in the first rounds and shells in the remaining rounds. When she asks why, he tells her the first two are a warning. He tells her she may be forced to take care of him on her own. We then see Leah buying a shotgun.Leah spots Carter with another woman and approaches the couple. She tells the woman everything Carter has done to her and advises her to run and run fast, which the woman does. Leah then files another restraining order against him and delivers it to his new boss herself, again getting him fired. Furious, Carter kicks the trash can as he's leaving his office.While following him, she finds his apartment and breaks in using a crowbar. There she finds all his computer monitors as well as her cat. Unable to crack the password, using a bat, she destroys all his computers and trashes the apartment. She then spray paints, Not good enough bring it bitch on the wall.That night, Carter breaks into Leah's home. He hears the shower running and enters the bathroom. The steam makes it impossible to see into the shower stall, but Carter hears the shotgun cock behind him. He turns to see Leah aiming the gun at him. Hesitating to shoot, Carter manages to get the gun away from Leah. The two fight and Carter slings Leah from room to room against the walls. He throws her down the stairs, and the two continue the fight in the kitchen. Leah is able to grab a knife and slash Carter once before he gets the knife away. Using pots on the stove, Leah finally incapacitates him enough to grab the shotgun. Carter dares her to shoot him and continues to advance; Leah shoots him with the bean-bag ammo twice in an attempt to immobilize him. When he asks her what that was, she says a warning. As he continues to advance, she shoots him with an actual shell, killing him sending him crashing back and shattering the glass top coffee table.A beaten and bloodied Leah enters the police department asking for Hansen. She lays the gun on his desk and says "I'd like to report an intruder". The last scene is the police removing Carter's body from Leah's home.

Tags: murder

Review:
These are the kinds of situations that become real problems for the main character in "The Perfect Guy" (PG-13, 1:40).Leah Vaughn (Sanaa Lathan) has it all well, most of it anyway.
A sympathetic police detective (Holt McCallany) does everything he can to protect Leah, and her neighbor (Tess Harper) looks out for her, but Leah ends up having to figure a way out of her situation mostly by herself."The Perfect Guy" is formulaic, fairly predictable – and fun.
(Plus, it's nice to see more ethnic diversity in the thriller genre.) "The Perfect Guy" may not be a perfectly original movie, but its appealing cast, smart script and well-constructed story make it worth a look.
In the movie Leah (Sanaa Lathan) a 36 year old lobbyist in L.A breaks up with her boyfriend Dave (Morris Chestnut) because of a decision they couldn't agree on.
As days pass and their relationship grows stronger, true sides of their personalities begin to show and the man that Leah thinks Carter is turns out to be the complete opposite of her hopes.
You won't believe the ups, downs, twists, and turns of the movie called "The Perfect Guy" directed by David M.
He plays the family man in many familiar movies such as "Not Easily Broken" and "The Best Man Holiday." And That Michael Ealy, can you say one of a kind.
Wednesday, 16 September 2015 I went to see the movie; "The Perfect Guy" with talented and pretty Sanaa Lathan.
Look at all the versions of vampire movies of old style to action vampire movies such as Blade to romantic such as Twilight or movies about space.This movie is a good twist on such movies as "Fatal Attraction" with Michael Douglas & Glynn Close, "Thin Line between Love and Hate" with Martin Lawrence or the more recent, "Obsessed" with Idris Elba and "Boy Next Door" with beautiful and talented Jennifer Lopez.I think the writers did a good job with this version.
Watch till the end,nice twists.I liked that the characters are not typical and that some boundaries are actually pushed in this movie.
It seems that whatever films come out revolving around a crush that turns into a lethal obsession, all that needs to be done is reference the classic drama, claim it's better and always will be, and after that, there's no reason to take the successor in question seriously.While "The Perfect Guy" is far from a solid film, and bears some glaring shortcomings, it has a certain level of appeal that kicks in around the third act, making it morph into a more lively thriller than others of the genre.
The film focuses on Leah Vaughn (Sanaa Lathan), a successful woman working in corporate America, who has been building an equally successful relationship with her boyfriend David (Morris Chestnut).
One day, however, she recognizes the fact that she's approaching forty and is still unmarried and childless, leading to spontaneously break up with David in the face of an early on-set midlife crisis.Not long after, Leah meets Carter (Michael Ealy), a suave, charming stranger at a coffee shop, who gives her his iced latte before her's is served.
Leah enlists in the help of Detective Hansen (Holt McCallany), who explains how difficult it is to persecute a rampant stalker without concrete evidence of life-threatening harassment, all while Carter's behavior never lets up.The acting in "The Perfect Guy" is uniformly shaky, with Lathan and Chestnut clearly doing their best to work on a basic level with what screenwriter Tyger Williams has given them.
The same mistake is made in Tyler Perry "Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor," albeit to a much greater extent.At the end of it all, "The Perfect Guy" still serves as competent entertainment, particularly when it disregards a lot of the acting and screen writing shakiness for consuming suspense in the final forty minutes.
Michael Ealy as always, does an incredible job in this film playing his role as an psychotic stalker after a one night stand .
You know the charming stranger who's actually slightly insane kind of movie that attempts at being both thrilling and sexy.And where as I enjoyed the aforementioned movies I can't say the same about this one.It's not the worst of it's kind or anything but it's so unremarkable in every way, there isn't even scenes that could make it enjoyable in 'so bad it's good' kind of way either, it's just really bland.And that's a shame because I like all the main actors in it MICHAEL EALY, SANNA LATHAN and MORRIS CHESTNUT are all accomplished actors in other films, but the problem with this movie is granted not the cast but the script.As you can probably understand 'the perfect guy' is not all that perfect, but he's so incredibly hollowly written.
Then when he went off, you felt so sorry for Sanaa Lathan's character, Lena who made the god awful wrong choice in rebound guy.The movie in itself was just OK, but I give it points for the performances of Lathan, Morris Chestnut, but especially Ealy who nailed it..
If it does, it's because, well, this was really not that different than what one saw earlier this year with The Boy Next Door - another painfully generic title for a lame movie - only there it was a teenager in place of a successful-in-business sociopath, and here it's a little more white collar-world (think, in the log-line-comparison term for a studio, Boy Next Door meets 2009's Obsession).In other words, it's trash.
It's enjoyable to a point, Sanaa Lathan and Morris Chestnut are (or try to be) real actors with Tyger Williams' script, which seems cooked up from so many parts (or just a clone) of Lifetime movies-of-the-week, and yet there is Michael Ealy to shake things up.
The only thing in fact this has over Boy Next Door is the villain being SO over the top with how he reacts to things, how major the signs come - at first, yes, he may appear charming, and then with the flick of one scene at a gas station he turns into a killer out of every generic horror movie you've ever seen (this time with extra surveillance capabilities, so why not throw in a touch of The Gift in there while you're lifting movies).This is basically in theaters to fill up the space that last year No Good Deed made, though that had the benefit of Idris Elba of all actors in the lead (a movie too good for him, yet made better by him).
The acting was awful and the writing terrible some of the cheesy lines the main characters were spouting off seriously was making me cringe, and I like cheesy movies!
Ican't comment on the ending as I turned it off before the end, and I NEVER do that I always watch things to the end even if I don't like the film as I always want to know how it ends but I couldn't bring myself to watch any more as it was so boring so cringe and I couldn't take any more, it was that bad!
Things start unraveling when her long- time boyfriend Dave (Morris Chestnut) begins to question her plans for the future including marriage and having a family.
This feeling starts to go away when she meets the handsome and seemingly charming Carter Duncan (Michael Ealy).
Their romance soon turns dangerous when Carter reveals to Leah his more violent side forcing her to reconsider who she once thought was Mr. Right.The first thing that came to mind when I was watching this was that this what The Boy Next Door should have been more like.
The character development of Michael Ealy's character, Carter, was a little too fast and the film didn't end with a bang either.
But with all that said, the acting in this film from the main characters was actually good and the conflicts between Leah (Sanaa Lathan) and Carter (Michael Ealy) didn't have the audience waiting too long.
Telling the age old story of the stalker ex, it pits a professional lobbyist, Leah, against her perfect-to-the-point-of-scary ex, Carter as she decides to move on with her life without him in it.
Sanaa Lathan and Michael Ealy give really great performances, which is kind of sad that their talents are wasted on such a crap script.
Overall, with its crap plotting and really seedy plot, you'd expect to have more fun watching The Perfect Guy. Instead, you'll be spending more time thinking of all the things it did wrong and wishing it was better..
I would suggest The Perfect Guy for any movie goer who enjoys a good, exciting, well made thriller/suspense fatal attraction type thriller.
As is usually the case in these movies, the girl makes stupid choices even though she knows the guy is stalking her, but it does have a good ending.
For those of us that watched the Following Michael Ealy basically plays the exact same character in the Following and in The perfect guy..
Successful lobbyist Leah Vaughn (Sanaa Lathan) is unhappy in her relationship with her boyfriend David King (Morris Chestnut), as he does not feel ready to commit to her wishes of starting a family, causing them to break up.
Two months later, she ends up meeting the charming Carter Duncan (Michael Ealy), who works in IT for another company.
A now relieved Leah reports Carter to Hansen as an intruder, and police cart his corpse out of her house.The perfect guy is a perfect thriller movie with a sexy black woman I wish I could hug and kiss..
I read this description of the movie:"After a painful breakup, successful lobbyist Leah Vaughn (Sanaa Lathan) jumps into a passionate relationship with a charming stranger (Michael Ealy).
A movie that makes every girl wish that she had a "perfect guy" in her life, but as all good things seem so right, most of the time, disaster is right around the corner.Leah Vaughn (played by Sanaa Lathan) is a 36 year old lobbyist in L.A. Everything seemed to be in order until Leah decided to end things with her boyfriend, Dave (played by Morris Chestnut) after he tells her that he's not ready to get married and have children.
After two months of being single, Leah meets a young man named Carter Duncan (played by Michael Early) and they hit it off right away.
As time progresses, Carter continues to charm Leah and before she knows it, she believes that she has finally found the "perfect man" for herself.
As the movie comes to an end, Leah has finally won her battle with Carter, but in the entire process she has lost people she cared about.This is a thrilling and an action filled movie with a predictable plot.
This is a movie to remind you that there is no such thing as a "perfect guy"..
VIEWS ON FILM review of The Perfect Guy. Michael Ealy is a pretty likable ham.
Because Dave doesn't want marriage and a family with her, Leah then decides to end things on good terms.
Leah (Sanaa Lathan) breaks up with her boyfriend Dave (Morris Chestnut) due to one party wanting to have children and the other party not wanting to have children.
Two months down the line, Leah meets Carter (Michael Ealy) a charming and seemingly perfect guy who is a fellow professional involved in corporate espionage.
However, Carter isn't prepared to accept that their relationship is over and begins stalking and terrorising Leah.From a very early stage, The Perfect Guy ran into problems with me; the initial break-up seemed rather flimsy (I could understand a couple falling out over differences of whether or not to raise a family, but to break up over this would suggest that the relationship wasn't that strong to begin with).
This makes Leah and Dave's rekindling of their relationship in the second half of the picture feel all the more artificial and phony.That being said if you're prepared to overlook the rather flimsy set-up then the film is actually quite good in parts (this is mainly down to a fantastic turn from Michael Ealy who is clearly much better than the film itself).
It's a very mechanical by-the-numbers film and you can pretty much see where it's going and what it's doing at every turn, but to be fair director David Rosenthal still manages to make the film feel suitably tense for the most part - although he clearly gets a lot of help from his cast who are all terrific.Whilst it is intense and gritty at times sadly this film is held back by some rather sloppy writing; examples of this include Carter being given a restraining order (in front of his employers)forbidding him from being within 50 yards of Leah and yet the employers take no action against him and nor do they seem that concerned at the fact that one of their employees has been given a restraining order???
I would have preferred it if good old fashioned detective work would have lead to Carter's undoing and eventual arrest but sadly it just didn't play out in this manner.At best The Perfect Guy is watchable, but the contrived set-up, shoddy writing and rather ridiculous conclusion ultimately do more harm than good resulting in a rather average film that could have been much better..
Sanaa breaks up with him and rebounds with Michael, whom she thinks is the perfect guy.
Like I said, nothing you probably haven't seen in quite a few other movies before but it is helped by how good Michael changes from good boy to maniac.
Then when that switch flipped it was even more shocking to watch the events unfold and the obsession begin.Michael Ealy on the other hand plays Carter a guy who in my opinion wasn't that charming to begin with.
So congrats to a director who made this film creepy but not cliché.Sanaa Lathan, as the stalker's victim, is very good here, as is the real good guy of the film -- Morris Chestnut; although Chestnut fans (like me) might be a bit disappointed as he is missing in long sections of the film (although that works in terms of the story line) and...well, let's just say I'm surprised Chestnut took this role.I know it's popular to say that all stalker movies are the same, but that's not really true, anymore than that's true for any other genre of film.
"The Perfect Guy" starts off with an intriguing premise, and the first thirty minutes of the film sizzle with a romantic relationship between Leah (Sanaa Lathan) and Carter (Michael Ealy).
But the film then takes a U-turn to a dismal and predictable story of a deranged stalker and subsequent revenge taken by the victim.Lathan and Ealy are both good in the parts.
This was about a woman named Leah who break up with her boyfriend and get involve with a guy who she thought was perfect which she didn't know was monster from within who called carter which wasn't his real name when she discovered the truth.
She meets another perfect man Carter (Michael Ealy) who drinks the same coffee as she does.
Even when all the friends and family were seeing him as a good guy in the beginning of their relationship, the way Ealy acted and used his eye movements I never could like him at all.
The title and story, albeit clichéd and predictable - very much so, The Perfect Guy still ends up being an entertaining romance thriller.The movie does a good job at moving at an appropriate pace, cutting out all the unnecessary drama, which helps a whole lot in keeping the thrill alive.Sanaa Lathan is incredibly gorgeous and exudes a certain level of class, which makes her an absolute joy to watch.
Ealy and Chestnut give satisfactory performances and the score also, gets a well deserved thumbs up.My biggest problems with this film, apart from its platitudes, is 1; Leah Vaughn complaining about being dated out, then went on to sleep with Carter in a club...
Carter was smart all through the movie, calm and composed, and instead of being defeated by an intelligent counter attack, he was defeated by what felt like, brute force.Nonetheless, The Perfect Guy was enjoyable.
Next comes a seemingly better option for the distressed female star.Jumping from a seemingly broken relationship, to a nearly "Perfect Guy", she thought she was surely in for the best of what life has to offer.
This is where things take a turn for the worse, and the thrilling parts of the movie begins.Issue #1: The problem of the key: The main character and even the police took way too long to ask about a possible key to get into her house.
Sanaa Lathan,Michael Ealy and Morris Chestnut stars in this film whose screenplay is written by Tyger Williams and whose direction is held by David M.
After two months,she meets a charming man who is working in an Information Technology company in Carter Duncan.They become close and start a relationship after Leah seem to find her the so-called "the perfect guy".But as the relationship progresses,Leah discovers some shocking violent qualities that Carter has in the gas station which led her to break up the relationship.
If you want to know what I mean, then try watching (Obsessed), (The Boy Next Door), (Fatal Attraction) and many more stalker-based films out there and then come tell me the difference.
All in all, The Perfect Guy is a recycled flick that fades away with the passing of the wind.The marriage/family desire of women plays a major role into why Leah breaks up with boyfriend Dave.
Morris Chestnut isn't given much to do except to come on screen and play the loving boyfriend/ partner, but then I can give you a list of films in which he has played this same role: (The Best Man Holiday)and (Not Easily Broken)-perfect typecasting!