Picture Perfect 1997

Kate is a talented but frustrated advertising executive in New York City, where progress rarely matches her potential. She toils at a fast-paced agency under a wary boss, Mr. Mercer, who ultimately passes her over for a promotion, claiming she isn’t stable enough. The office whispers and the sting of disappointment push her to keep proving herself. Her coworker, Darcy, hatches a clever but risky scheme: she fabricates a romance between Kate and Nick, a Massachusetts-based freelance videographer she photographed at a friend’s wedding, hoping the ruse will push Kate into the spotlight she craves.

That manufactured engagement initially pays off, helping Kate clinch the promotion she’s pursued. But the plan is complicated when Nick saves a little girl from a fire and ends up in the news, forcing Kate to confront the reality of the lie. Mercer and his wife request that Kate bring her supposed fiancé to dinner, testing the fiction in a very public setting. She travels to Boston to recruit Nick to play along and to break up with her in front of the group, hoping the drama will still serve her career. Nick, who genuinely likes Kate, agrees to help, which sets the stage for a more complicated chemistry to unfold.

Meanwhile, Sam, a colleague Kate has long wanted, begins to notice her situation and the tension between truth and image. With the engagement dangling as a workplace asset, they share a moment of intimacy on two occasions, adding layers to the web of deception and desire surrounding Kate.

Nick arrives in New York and stays at Kate’s apartment, and as they spend more time together, she begins to genuinely warm to him. During the dinner with Mercer, Nick offers sincere compliments and hints at a future they might share, while Kate clings to the plan she thought she wanted. Her attempts to spark a fight falter, and she even pays a restaurant employee to feign that Nick is having an affair with an ex-girlfriend. Nick quickly realizes what’s going on and chooses to go along, calculating what is best for both of them while the charade continues. The next day, after his attempts to win her over have not produced the outcome she hoped for, he returns to Boston.

A week later, a special gift Nick left for her hints at the truth beneath the surface, prompting Kate to come clean to Mercer and their coworkers about the fake engagement. She admits that she was “dressing for the job she wanted,” echoing a line Mercer once used about her instability. Mercer reveals that he had once exaggerated aspects of his own past, offering a moment of vulnerability, and he suggests Kate take a few days off to see Nick and figure things out.

The moment of truth arrives when Kate interrupts Nick’s recording of a church wedding. He initially rebuffs her attempts to patch things up, but she persists, stepping into the ceremony at a critical moment. The entire congregation watches as she apologizes for how she treated him. Nick invites her to stay for the wedding reception and dinner afterwards, and the couple shares a heartfelt embrace as the attendees applaud, signaling the tentative beginning of a possible, more honest future together.