Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		0.5
Audio		2.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		1.0

Perfect Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Brian Orndorf March 15, 2016

1985’s “Perfect” is generally regarded as a low point in 1980s cinema, also cited as the film that brought down star John Travolta’s career after a string of hits and interesting misses, disrupting a career that once seemed destined for greatness. Perhaps in its day and age, the feature was a strange, humorless production that was marketed as a celebration of the superficial, boasting a title that teed up opportunity for widespread ridicule. Today, “Perfect” certainly isn’t perfect, but it’s a far more interesting picture than its reputation suggests, generating a celebration and critique of journalism that’s rich with professional detail and carries a lived-in quality during all the fictional reporting. The theatrical cut ends up a mess, but never a tedious one, with the film handling the grind of the news-making machine with palpable fatigue, while Travolta and co-star Jamie Lee Curtis make credible transformations into fallible people.

A top reporter for Rolling Stone magazine, Adam Lawrence (John Travolta) keeps busy juggling a few stories, with his focus primarily centered on a crooked businessman who keeps avoiding the media spotlight. To keep editor Mark (Jann Wenner) happy, Adam comes up with a new story that tracks the rise of health clubs as “the singles bars of the ‘80s,” promising to explore local business The Sports Connection to the fullest. Inside the gym, Adam spies aerobics ace Jessie Wilson (Jamie Lee Curtis) in action, wowed by her physical intensity and general air of mystery. Trying to cozy up to the instructor, Adam struggles for concentration, trying to keep the quirky customers of the Sports Connection in view for his article, while gradually wearing down Jessie, whose shadowy past piques his curiosity, urging him to dig deep at the same time his underworld story begins to spiral out of control.

After tasting success with his take on western bars in “Urban Cowboy,” director James Bridges arrives at a different type of watering hole with “Perfect,” slicing into the singles scene at L.A. gyms, where the fit and desirable rub elbows with struggling wannabes, creating a rock star out of Jessie, who delivers her aerobics class to a packed house every day, leading the masses with a precise display of bodily movement. The idea of entrance into this peculiar world is appealing, and the production generates a full sense of the Sports Connection community, following Adam as he marvels over the social aspects of the gym, where men and women go to chase fitness and one another, meeting with Sally (Marilu Henner) and Linda (Laraine Newman), a needy type described behind her back as the “most used piece of equipment” in the building. At the very least, Bridges finds this world of desperation and commitment with relative ease, creating a vivid portrait of California life in 1985, with its skimpy exercise wear and general sexual permissiveness.

Unfortunately, “Perfect” doesn’t want to simply explore the health club, depicting Adam as a self-absorbed writer nursing a God complex, splitting his time between the Sports Connection and a more respectable set of leads as he puts together a story concerning the shady dealings of an elusive businessman the government is looking to arrest. The screenplay finds plenty of excuses to turn this potential T&A festival into something meaningful, catching up with Adam he struggles for career significance in a post-Watergate journalistic world, finding it difficult to return to the Rolling Stone fluff when he’s on the cusp of greatness. Although ethical ambiguity is ignored to achieve a safe ending, the dark side of Adam’s ambition is successfully articulated in “Perfect,” which isn’t shy about making the lead character look like manipulative monster who’ll gladly stab anyone in the back to protect his interests, using his natural sex appeal to warm up those resistant to public comment and, in some cases, he outright badgers subjects into sharing personal information.

Adam possesses a tricky moral core, tested by his relationship with Jesse, who, due to past journalistic trauma, remains wary of the writer until her attraction to him is unable to be silenced. Once Jessie and Adam commence a relationship, “Perfect” loses editorial confidence, struggling to piece together two separate storylines that showcase the reporter’s duality as he’s faced with relationship and professional ruin. Ideas are stronger than scenes here, with Bridges creating a dramatic roller coaster to depict the young couple’s inability to trust each other, with Jessie particularly sensitive to betrayal but unable to keep away from Adam, despite his insistence on betraying her and the rest of the Sports Connection staff, exposing their secrets for profit. Perhaps “Perfect” isn’t “All the President’s Men,” but it carries authenticity with newsroom antics and reporter frustrations, spotlighting rivalries and camaraderie as Adam gets in over his head. There’s much to appreciate here, including strong work from Travolta, who doesn’t seem particularly afraid to portray Adam as a semi-scam artist who uses his fame to charm and destroy the colorful gym gang.

Perfect Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Shot in the 2.35:1 aspect ratio for its original theatrical release, "Perfect" arrives on Blu-ray with an AVC encoded, 1.78:1 aspect ratio presentation, successfully destroying the picture's compositions and general breathing room. The cropped viewing experience looks sourced from an older scan, highlighting an absurd blurriness that bats away all detail, removing texture from the parade of bodies and costumes. Colors are flat and lifeless, losing the impact of the era's interest in extreme hues, while skintones look bloodless. Grain is chunky, reaching noisy extremes. Delineation reaches points of solidification. Speckling is detected. It's a cruel BD release for "Perfect," which is actually a wonderfully shot feature, retaining none of its original artistry here.

Perfect Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The 2.0 Dolby Digital sound mix doesn't provide "Perfect" with the crisp listening experience it deserves, leaving emphasis on dialogue exchanges, which sound acceptable, but fail to create a precise sense of drama. Soundtrack selections are also lacking in power, but the essentials of instrumentation are presented acceptably, giving a little oomph to montages and workout sequences. Club atmospherics are comfortable but never remarkable, adding only a thin sense of group interactions and workout activity.

Perfect Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

There is no supplementary material on this disc.

Perfect Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Again, "Perfect" loses attention to detail in the final act, finding Bridges possibly under orders to whittle a larger cut down to size, dropping nuance with Adam's other role as a journalist embroiled in a first amendment fight, refusing to hand over interview tapes to the government. The subplot is only vaguely defined, but it plays a major role in the final act, which is more of a woozy comedown than a secure conclusion to a story loaded with sophisticated emotions and professional standards. Instead of journalistic integrity, a love story rises to the forefront, and not a terribly convincing one at that. "Perfect" is held together by a few great scenes, a fascinating look at an exercise fad, and strong performances that manage to survive mangled editing. It's the overall dissection of professional and personal honor that's lost in the shuffle, keeping the picture confused but never easily dismissed.