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Everything bad about teen chick flicks is encapsulated in The Perfect Man. Starlet Hilary Duff and director Mark Rosman (who brought you ) re-team for another criminal assault on impressionable young minds with this inane story of a girl who invents a boyfriend for her love-starved mom. While the prickly bond between mother and daughter initially draws you in, the bubblegum plot is puffed with so much hot air that it rapidly stretches to bursting point.

According to Holly (Duff), doing a crossword puzzle with a pen instead of pencil is a sure sign of intelligence in a man. In addition, he must also believe that "the moon isn鈥檛 just a rock", but "a ball of magic that reminds us each day has the potential for beauty..." Alas this brain-dead banter neatly sums up the characters. It's bad enough that actor Chris Noth is lumbered with such a dim-witted portrayal of 'the perfect man', but Holly's supposedly world-weary mother (Heather Locklear) actually swallows this nonsense via love letters written by her daughter.

"RIDICULOUS TWISTS AND UNFUNNY MISHAPS"

Precisely why Holly sees fit to play her mother's dream date isn't clear except that she just wants to "make her happy". Organising a blind date seems the obvious solution, only that would deny us two hours of increasingly ridiculous twists and unfunny mishaps. All the superfluous noise drowns out a genuine rapport between Duff and Locklear, which is further undermined by a tacked-on fairytale ending. In truth, The Perfect Man turns out to be dry, lifeless and totally spaced out - much like that big rock in the sky.