'The Perfect Score' loses points for routine comedy

Friday, January 30, 2004

By Barbara Vancheri, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

As instructed by your test administrator, you have opened your Weekend Mag and should have a sharp No. 2 pencil at the ready. You may now proceed.

	'The Perfect Score' Rating: PG-13 for language, sexual content and some drug references Starring: Chris Evans, Erika Christensen, Scarlett Johansson Director: Brian Robbins

1. During the 2002-03 school year, 2.2 million students of all ages took the SAT. If half of the test-takers see the movie "The Perfect Score" and pay $6 per admission, what will be the result?

a.) $13.2 million. No Ashton Kutcher, after all.

b.) $6.6 million. No Ashton Kutcher, after all.

c.) Everyone knows the real money's at the concession counter. How much popcorn and giant Cokes will these kids suck down?

d.) It will be another movie that doesn't garner an Oscar nomination for ensemble player Scarlett Johansson.

e.) Answers b, c and d are correct.

And you should have circled the invisible bubble next to: e.

"The Perfect Score" is a high school heist film. Instead of conspiring to steal gold bars or computer chips or diamonds, a ragtag band is aiming to filch the answers to the SAT.

The mastermind is Kyle (Chris Evans), an aspiring architect who has his heart set on going to Cornell University and only Cornell. But his test score isn't high enough and he has no backup or safety schools, which should send every parent or senior into a cold sweat. What's a kid to do? Hire a tutor and cram? Why, no. Try to steal the test answers.

Kyle assembles a team that includes his best friend (Bryan Greenberg), who wants to rejoin his high school girlfriend at college; a smart good girl (Erika Christensen); a sarcastic rich rebel (Scarlett Johansson); a basketball standout (Darius Miles); and an underachieving stoner (Leonardo Nam).

"The Perfect Score" is best early on, when it focuses on the tyranny of testing. But it turns into a routine caper comedy with a morally acceptable ending for a picture with such a dubious premise. And Johansson, star of "Lost in Translation" and "Girl With a Pearl Earring," rises to the head of the class once more.

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