2008 Woodie Awards
Perfect Stranger delivers a good ending
Ericka Christensen
Issue date: 4/25/07 Section: Opinion
- Page 1 of 1
This thriller, while not bad, is clichéd, generally routine and never particularly satisfying. Truly the best thing about this movie is its ending. I don't mean when it stops; this is an ending, for once, that will take you by surprise.
Halle Berry plays Rowena Price, a reporter for a New York City newspaper who, as the film opens, has just suffered a disheartening frustration: a U.S. senator has pulled strings and paid big bucks to have a sex scandal she has spent six months working on about him killed by her editors.
No sooner does she quit her job than her licentious childhood friend (Nicki Aycox) tracks her down and ends up brutally murdered. Rowena suspects the murderer could be Harrison Hill (Bruce Willis), the womanizing head of Manhattan's trendiest advertising agency.
To get the goods on him, she finagles a job as a temp in his agency, makes it a point to catch his eye, cunningly flirts her way into a tryst with him and, as she gets closer and closer to the evidence, increasingly puts herself in mortal danger. Yet, the suspense never builds and Willis seems bored throughout most of the film.
Rowena Price is assisted every step of the way by an unrelenting techno-geek at her former newspaper (Giovanni Ribisi), who is clearly obsessed with her. He also knew the murder victim and is progressively showing signs that he could be the killer.
Also in the mix are the adman's covetous wife (Paula Miranda); Rowena's boyfriend (Gary Dourdan), who cheated on Price with the victim; and strange flashbacks involving childhood molestation, from Rowena's troubled past.
The script is jerky, the suspense as mentioned before is weak and so is the instant messaging sex. It is somewhat hard to believe that this executive spends his free time hitting on people in chat rooms with a series of ridiculously outdated one liners, especially when there is no shortage of women hitting on him. You spend several minutes staring at a computer screen, that's one way to scrimp on the budget!
Perfect Stranger purportedly was filmed with three endings, every one with a different character as the murderer. Director James Foley unquestionably chose the least likely.
Halle Berry plays Rowena Price, a reporter for a New York City newspaper who, as the film opens, has just suffered a disheartening frustration: a U.S. senator has pulled strings and paid big bucks to have a sex scandal she has spent six months working on about him killed by her editors.
No sooner does she quit her job than her licentious childhood friend (Nicki Aycox) tracks her down and ends up brutally murdered. Rowena suspects the murderer could be Harrison Hill (Bruce Willis), the womanizing head of Manhattan's trendiest advertising agency.
To get the goods on him, she finagles a job as a temp in his agency, makes it a point to catch his eye, cunningly flirts her way into a tryst with him and, as she gets closer and closer to the evidence, increasingly puts herself in mortal danger. Yet, the suspense never builds and Willis seems bored throughout most of the film.
Rowena Price is assisted every step of the way by an unrelenting techno-geek at her former newspaper (Giovanni Ribisi), who is clearly obsessed with her. He also knew the murder victim and is progressively showing signs that he could be the killer.
Also in the mix are the adman's covetous wife (Paula Miranda); Rowena's boyfriend (Gary Dourdan), who cheated on Price with the victim; and strange flashbacks involving childhood molestation, from Rowena's troubled past.
The script is jerky, the suspense as mentioned before is weak and so is the instant messaging sex. It is somewhat hard to believe that this executive spends his free time hitting on people in chat rooms with a series of ridiculously outdated one liners, especially when there is no shortage of women hitting on him. You spend several minutes staring at a computer screen, that's one way to scrimp on the budget!
Perfect Stranger purportedly was filmed with three endings, every one with a different character as the murderer. Director James Foley unquestionably chose the least likely.
Be the first to comment on this story