The Perfect Man

“This world is not my home, I’m just a-passin’ through,” we used to sing. I grew up in church, you see, and forty years ago that was one of the new-fangled choruses that found its way into the “Youth Sings” songbook. That meant the song was okay to use at evening services or around campfires, but wasn’t suitable for Sunday mornings. Too lively. Not reverent enough. Just too new. Maybe even theologically incorrect (gasp!). Some would whisper, “Think that way and you’ll be so heavenly minded that you’ll be no earthly good!”

But the sentiment is one that won’t die. Fifteen years ago or so, the song showed up on a Lone Justice album, and even the band’s anthology album was titled “This World is not My Home.” Switchfoot’s Beautiful Letdown riffs on the feeling that “I Don’t Belong Here.” Somehow, the theme of our transitory existence just keeps coming back.

The Perfect Man deals in part with this very issue. Granted, the question isn’t posed in an existential fashion but is rather grounded in sitcom-ish workaday realities. But isn’t that where the rubber hits the road?

As the movie opens, Holly is excitedly trying on a new dress, dreaming of the possibility of actually living in one place long enough to emotionally invest in attending a school dance. At that very moment, quite literally, Holly’s mom Jean yet again finds romance on the rocks—and Holly knows from the Patsy Cline tunes in the living room that it’s time to move on yet again.

So the family lands in New York. Determined to prevent her mom from landing once again in a too-soon-started and too-soon-ended relationship, Holly invents the Perfect Man to be her mom’s secret admirer. Naturally, the unsuspecting accomplice upon whom Holly bases her Perfect Man gravitates into Jean’s life and the ensuing complications drive Holly—not her mom—to the conclusion it is time, yet again, to move on. Holly just can’t seem to grow roots anywhere.

But the lesson Holly and Jean both need to learn—and learn they do, through the not-so-convincing and not-so-entertaining device of cinematic instant-messaging sessions—is that, most often, the perfect place is right where you’re at.

So, yes. This world is not our home. We are just passing through. But while we’re here, God wants us to be here. Toward that end, Jesus died to save us from the penalty of the mistakes we make while we’re here, and the Holy Spirit is with us to help make things better as we go. Like Holly, and like Jean, we’ve just got to learn to stop running from the trouble that surrounds us (and the trouble that we make), and learn to persevere a little.

It’s just too bad that the characters in The Perfect Man, aside from Holly, never seem to feel (or think about) anything very deeply. In the Perfect Movie, the lesson might have been more convincing.

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