The Perfect Score (2004)

★★★
High schools place way too much pressure on students to achieve greatness on the S.A.T.s. Most big universities will accept students who score about average. I scored a 1060 on my first attempt in March 1993 (630 on math, 430 on verbal). The guidance counselors actually told me to retake the test to get my verbal score up. Retake? As if my total score wouldn't be good enough, they told me to try again, which I didn't do. I still managed to go to college. The Perfect Score is a movie that examines the paranoia of scoring high on the S.A.T. to get into the best colleges. It's pretty funny and has a good caper plot at its heart.

Kyle (Chris Evans) dreams of getting into Cornell University to become an architect. He needs a minimum score of 1430 to get in. Kyle shouldn't sweat it, because even if he doesn't make it into Cornell, he can still study architecture at any good school whose standards aren't so lofty. That aside, he's worried that he won't attain such a high score, so he concocts a plan to break into S.A.T. headquarters in Princeton, NJ and steal a copy. The building is heavily equipped with cameras, and like in a heist movie, he will require an elaborate plan and lots of help.

He finds assistance in a motley bunch of fellow seniors including the reclusive Francesca (Scarlett Johansson), basketball player Desmond (Darius Miles), computer nerd and weed-smoker Roy (Leonard Nam) and tag-alongs Anna (Erika Christensen) and Matty (Bryan Greenbergarry). Francesca's father works at S.A.T. headquarters, so she has a little insight into how the place operates. The six students put their heads together and develop an intricate plan to break into the building late at night, work around the cameras and make copies of the test. As usual, an unexpected element slips into the scenario to spoil the plan, making things much more difficult.

For what it is, The Perfect Score works pretty well. The caper, like many capers in the movies, is intricate and depends on patience and risk-taking. The idea of high school students breaking into a building unnoticed isn't so farfetched, given the complications presented in the movie. This is not a bank vault, so security, while tight, isn't too vigilant. There's not a whole lot to say about the acting, except that everyone gives a suitable performance for his role. Johansson looks like she's a hundred miles away, Nam is always laughing from his last toke, Anna is nervous, and the rest are simply determined to make sure the heist succeeds without a hitch.

The Perfect Score is two things: a commentary on the extremes that guidance counselors impress upon their students and a nifty heist film with underage characters. Every one of the perpetrators is intelligent (even pot smoker Roy) and they use their brains to infiltrate the building and get what they want. A reader out there might try to tell me that we shouldn't look so positively at these teens' actions. After all, they're committing theft. That's true, but I actually admire their ingenuity more than the deed itself. If they're smart enough to break into S.A.T. headquarters, then they're smart enough to pass the test without stealing.

© 2004 Silver Screen Reviews