In theaters

THE PERFECT MAN, directed by Mark Rosman, written by Gina Wendkos, 100 minutes, rated PG.

This week’s life lesson from Hollywood is a boon for unhappy teenage girls seeking companionship for their single mothers. If you’re looking for that perfect man for mom, the best way to find him isn’t through friends, the personals or a computer dating service. It’s through lies and deception.

At least that’s according to “The Perfect Man,” a screwy romantic comedy from Mark Rosman that’s on the fast track to your local video store.

The film stars Hilary Duff as Holly, a sweet-faced tween with a bum life whose free-living mother Jean (Heather Locklear) is a pastry chef with no center, no filling, no creme de la creme. No matter how many men she dates – and there have been plenty – she can’t seem to find the right guy.

To be kind to Jean, let’s refer to her as a serial dater. To round out her personality, let’s peg her as a frequent traveler.

For instance, when her relationships spoil, as they tend to do, Jean doesn’t stick around to see if anyone else in her neighborhood might enjoy a cupcake and conversation. Instead, she announces to her daughters Holly and Zoe (Aria Wallace) that they’re leaving home for another “adventure.” In Jean-speak, that means packing their bags for another state with a fresh crop of men.

Insensitive? You could say that – neither Holly nor Zoe know what it means to put down roots, which is why Holly turns to her Web site, GirlOnTheMove.com, to blog her despair. Still, Jean isn’t depicted here as a monster. Instead, she’s viewed as flighty and immature, with her great fear being that when her daughters are grown, she’ll be alone. Hustling to make sure that doesn’t happen, her latest whim is to leave Wichita for Brooklyn, where she hopes to find a nice guy.

Holly is determined that she’ll do better than that. In fact, while her mother strikes up a benign relationship with the first man who approaches her – her co-worker, Lenny (Mike O’Malley) – Holly decides to get her mother interested in her friend’s fetching Uncle Ben (Chris Noth), who owns a swank bistro and knows his way around an orchid.

It’s how she does so that’s the problem. Posing as Ben, Holly writes love letters to her mother, telling her things about romance and relationships that only the perfect man could know. At one point, she includes Ben’s photograph, which causes Jean to swoon. At another point, she sends Jean flowers, all allegedly in the name of love. Throughout, Holly is courted by her classmate Lance (Carson Kressley), whose affection for her grows as her web of lies deepen.

Excuse me, but who are these people? None of this is played out as seriously as it would be in real life because the movie can’t handle real life or real emotions. If they intervened, Jean would be on a thorazine drip and Holly would be talking to somebody with a holster about the ramifications of identity theft. That would be the interesting movie this film doesn’t have the guts to be.

Grade: D

On video and DVD

THE WOODSMAN, directed by Nicole Kassell, written by Kassell, Steven Fechter, 87 minutes, rated R.

Nicole Kassell’s “The Woodsman” stars Kevin Bacon as Walter, a convicted pedophile recently released from a 12-year stint in prison who is trying to rebuild his life in spite of the temptations threatening to derail it.

Good luck to Walter.

As directed by Kassell from a script she co-wrote with Steven Fechter, “The Woodsman” is dicey, tense moviemaking that rides an uncomfortable edge throughout. Set in a blue-collar section of Philadelphia, the film opens with Walter leaving prison under the supervised parole of Sgt. Lucas (Mos Def), finding work at a lumberyard thanks to family connections, and then securing an apartment across the street from a grade school.

Allegedly, this was the only apartment complex in the city that would take a sex offender’s money, but really, it’s just a plot contrivance, allowing us to watch Walter struggle with himself as he watches young girls playing just out of reach below him.

Three additional characters enter the mix – Walter’s brother-in-law Carlos (Benjamin Bratt), who is the only family member not to shun him; Walter’s co-worker Vickie (Kyra Sedgwick, Bacon’s real-life wife), with whom he has a telling affair; and the homosexual pedophile, Candy (Kevin Rice), who is paying too much attention to the boys in the playground beneath Walter’s living-room window.

Throughout, too many contrivances bump against story, sending it askew, but still it comes recommended. This is an uneasy film to watch, and not all will welcome it for good reasons. But as a study in pedophilia, which is especially timely given the recent Michael Jackson trial, there is plenty to be said for the conversation it ignites.

Kassell doesn’t make Walter sympathetic and she doesn’t demonize him. Instead, she just observes him, focusing on his compulsions and treating his pedophilia as a disease. This will be a sticking point for some, particularly given the crimes involved, but it allows the movie complications it otherwise would have lacked had Kassell gone for straight apologia or outright attack.

Grade: B+

Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appear Mondays and Fridays in Style, Weekends in Television, and are archived at RottenTomatoes.com. He may be reached at BDNFilm1@aol.com.

THE VIDEO-DVD CORNER

Renting a video or a DVD? BDN film critic Christopher Smith can help. Below are his grades of recent releases in video stores. Those in bold print are new to video stores this week.

Are We There Yet? – D

Assault on Precinct 13 – C+

The Aviator – A

Bad Education – A

Being Julia – B+

Beyond the Sea – C

Birth – B+

Boogeyman – D

Coach Carter – B-

The Chorus – A-

Closer – B-

Collateral – B+

Cursed – C-

Darkness – D+

Diary of a Mad Black Woman – C-

A Dirty Shame – B

Elektra – C-

Ella Enchanted – B

Envy – D

Finding Neverland – C

Flight Of The Phoenix – C-

Hostage – C-

House of Flying Daggers – A

The Incredibles – A

In Good Company – B+

King Arthur – B

Kinsey – A

Ladder 49 – B

Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events – B-

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou – D+

Maria Full Of Grace – A

Meet the Fockers – C

Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous – C+

Napoleon Dynamite – B+

National Treasure – C-

The Notebook – B+

Ocean’s Twelve – C-

The Pacifier – D+

The Phantom of the Opera – C

Ray – A

The Sea Inside – A-

Seed of Chucky – C-

Sideways – A

Taxi – D+

Team America: World Police – B-

William Shakespeare’s the Merchant of Venice – C+