Perfect Stranger (2007)

A journalist goes undercover to ferret out businessman Harrison Hill as her childhood friend's killer. Posing as one of his temps, she enters into a game of online cat-and-mouse.

Director:

James Foley

Writers:

Todd Komarnicki (screenplay), Jon Bokenkamp (story)

Stars:

Halle Berry, Bruce Willis, Giovanni Ribisi

1 win.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Halle Berry	...	Rowena Price
Bruce Willis	...	Harrison Hill
Giovanni Ribisi	...	Miles Haley
Richard Portnow	...	Narron
Gary Dourdan	...	Cameron
Florencia Lozano	...	Lieutenant Tejada
Nicki Aycox	...	Grace
Kathleen Chalfant	...	Elizabeth Clayton
Gordon MacDonald	...	Senator Sachs
Daniella Van Graas	...	Josie
Paula Miranda	...	Mia Hill
Patti D'Arbanville	...	Esmeralda
Clea Lewis	...	Gina
Tamara Feldman	...	Bethany
Gerry Becker	...	Jon Kirshenbaum

Storyline

Rowena Price is a muckraking reporter for a New York paper. When her story about a closeted gay Senator who preaches family values is spiked, she quits and soon finds herself investigating the grisly murder of a childhood friend. Her friend had been dumped by ad exec Harrison Hill, so he's Rowena's prime suspect. Rowena gets a job at the ad agency as a temp, and she's soon the object of Hill's attentions. She's helped in her subterfuge by Miles Haley, a friend at the paper who has a secret thing for her. Everyone, it seems, has secrets, including Hill, who must keep his affairs from his wife - her money fuels his lifestyle. Murder will out?

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Plot Keywords:

friend | childhood friend | reporter | gay | murder | 

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Taglines:

How Far Would You Go To Keep A Secret?

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for sexual content, nudity, some disturbing violent images and language

Details

Official Sites:

Gaumont Columbia Tristar [fr] Official site [au]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

13 April 2007 (USA)

Also Known As:

Seduciendo a un extraño

Filming Locations:

Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$60,795,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£277,047 (UK) (13 April 2007)

Gross:

$23,705,592 (USA) (18 May 2007)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Revolution Studios

Technical Specs

Runtime:

109 min

Sound Mix:

SDDS Dolby Digital DTS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The filmmakers filmed three different endings to the film, each with a different character as the killer.

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Goofs

Miles is supposedly searching Harrison's files for a picture of someone named "Veronica". Two screens of information are shown to illustrate this. The screens have nothing to do with searching for a file. The first is a screen of "fdisk", a Linux program for formatting partitions. The second looks like an FTP log, which appeared earlier in the film as well.

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Quotes

Miles Haley: Ohh I'm the one who's keeping secrets?

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Connections

Featured in The Rotten Tomatoes Show: The American/Going the Distance/Machete (2010)

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Soundtracks

"Don't Cry Baby"
Written by Saul Bernie, James P. Johnson (as James Johnson) and Stella Unger
Performed by Etta James
Courtesy of Geffen Records
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

User Reviews

A complete waste of time (and that's an understatement)

I've never commented movies here but I just had to write a word of warning to anyone who's planning on watching this. The movie is slow, boring, without suspense or tension. The story is lame, nothing new nor original, nor even interesting. One is under the impression that they just threw ideas on paper not bothering to shape them into a coherent story (and I use the term "idea" in the broadest possible meaning). Hence all the holes and illogic places in the plot. Sorry guys, but a few close-ups of Halle Berry's ass aren't going to make up for the terrible story. The characters are so underdeveloped that they are not even two-dimensional. Acting is just terrible and even though none of the actors did well, Halle Berry must be singled out as absolutely the worst of them. She just can't act. Even when she forces herself to change facial expression nothing really changes in her acting. She might as well be reading the phone book out loud. Scenes which should be dramatic and emotional are just plain ridiculous. Plus, she's too old for the role she was playing here. Curiously enough, she's not the one wearing the most makeup in this movie. Cue Bruce Willis. He is now running neck to neck with Sylwester Stallone in the "who's wearing the most makeup" race. Apart from that, he's just being there doing his thing, being exactly the same as in any other movie he's acted in. One wonders why they even bother to change the name his characters, because he portrays them all in the same way.

As for the "twist" in the end, it would be equally sensible to blame it all on the Monty Python's killer rabbit. No, wait, that would actually make more sense.

I was going to give this movie 1 star but I'm giving it 2 so that people wouldn't say that my only goal was to lower the movie's rating. If you're into masochism don't watch this movie. Hurt yourself in a more humane way.