Like most people who had sat through Fools Rush In, Almost Heroes, Three To Tango, Serving Sara and the double helping of chronic unfunny that was The Whole Nine Yards and The Whole Ten Yards, we’d pretty much given up on Matthew Perry’s film career.
And, to be frank, since The Whole Ten Yards imploded in 2004 (investigators are still sifting through the rubble for anything that can be identified as a joke), it seemed that Matthew Perry had pretty much given up on Matthew Perry’s film career. Since then, he’s appeared in just two movies, the low-budget Numb and the forthcoming The Laws Of Motion, with the former Chandler Bing choosing instead to focus on TV, and the short-lived Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip.
But today, something weird happened. Perry signed on to star in a new comedy – and it sounds like it might not actually want to make us gouge our eyes out to make the pain go away.
A couple of weeks back, we brought you news that Zac Efron – the hugely popular star of Disney’s High School Musical virus, sorry, series of hit movies – was set to star in 17, a body swap comedy about a middle-aged man who wakes up as a teenager, and promptly enrols at his kids’ school in order to keep an eye on them, the sneaky so-and-so.
Well, Perry has agreed to play Efron before Efron becomes Efron. Which makes perfect sense to us, but we’ll layman’s it for you just in case you’re a bit of a Joey: Perry will play the older version of Efron in the movie, which will be directed by Igby Goes Down’s Burr Steers.
Of course, this means that it’s likely that Perry won’t get a great deal of screentime – he’ll probably just bookend the movie, unless Steers can find a way to incorporate Perry into the main action (perhaps appearing as Efron’s reflection, a la Lily Tomlin in All Of Me?).
But, despite the debacle that has been Perry’s big-screen career to date, we’re pleased for the former Friend. He’s got comic timing and charm aplenty, and perhaps this might be the project that could remind people of that. Just as long as he doesn’t trot out another riff on Chandler – if that happens, could we be any more disappointed?
Sorry. Couldn’t resist.