Aptly set in the smug, sexed-up world of commercial advertising, "Perfect Stranger" is itself an imposter. A pumped-up product of Hollywood's Madison Avenue mentality, the film is awash with product placement, from Reebok to Victoria's Secret, and judging from the number of over-emphasized shots of her bodily assets, Halle Berry's for sale too.
Directed by con artiste James Foley, whose last film was 2003's "Confidence," "Perfect Stranger" is a film attempting to be a techno-thriller, playing on the way the internet masks identities and can host all kinds of dirty little secrets.
Berry is Rowena, a reporter who lusts after news stories that dish the dirt on wealthy, corrupt men. One of these men, high profile ad executive Harrison Hill (Bruce Willis), becomes the reporter's prime target after an old friend tracks her down and spins her a tale of web seduction, adultery and rejection.
In reality, the "I-got-dumped-by-a-married-man" story isn't too juicy for a reporter hoping to nab a Pulitzer, but Rowena takes it. The stakes are raised when the friend ends up dead, provoking an undercover stint at Hill's ad agency, where Rowena hopes to bait the lecherous boss-man albeit with the help of her on-call tech wiz, Miles (Giovanni Ribisi). This is where "Perfect Stranger" starts to get silly.
We all know that sex sells but, when packaged poorly, it can be a big turn off. Berry is gorgeous and, at times, channels Sharon Stone in "Basic Instinct." Nevertheless, due to flaws in the script and Foley's heavy-handed direction, the film suffers from being over-sexualized, which pushes key scenes into embarrassingly cringe-worthy territory.
Worse than that, the third act reveals that "Perfect Stranger" is not really about sex or its corrupting power. It's about something entirely different: hidden traumas, self-loathing and lingering guilt. Repeatedly featuring Victoria's Secret throughout the narrative does not count as a clever way to explore themes related to non-disclosure and yet "Perfect Stranger" milks the panty peddler for all it's worth.
Rowena is a layered character but we don't fully understand her complexities until the end of the film. It's not wrong for a film to lead the audience on; the best thrillers, in fact, capitalize on this technique. They do this, however, by suffusing the first two acts with details that will make audience members think, "I knew it all along," as the final act concludes, even when they didn't.
That skill is one that co-writer Jon Bokenkamp seemed to have mastered when he penned "Taking Lives," a film that "Perfect Stranger" emulates. Unfortunately he and co-writer Todd Komarnicki failed to reproduce the effect and we're left floundering, with a movie that does nothing but infuriate the viewer and mocks itself further in the last few frames.
It'll be hard to sit through most of it, but if you're going to do it, don't miss the last ten minutes. They contain information barely alluded to in the preceding 100 minutes but they are the most important ten minutes in the entire production. Those instructions aside, "Perfect Stranger" does not come highly recommended unless, of course, you enjoy watching an Oscar winner add another defeat to her now infamous losing streak.
Copyright (c) 2006 by Lauren Simpson
Directed by con artiste James Foley, whose last film was 2003's "Confidence," "Perfect Stranger" is a film attempting to be a techno-thriller, playing on the way the internet masks identities and can host all kinds of dirty little secrets.
Berry is Rowena, a reporter who lusts after news stories that dish the dirt on wealthy, corrupt men. One of these men, high profile ad executive Harrison Hill (Bruce Willis), becomes the reporter's prime target after an old friend tracks her down and spins her a tale of web seduction, adultery and rejection.
In reality, the "I-got-dumped-by-a-married-man" story isn't too juicy for a reporter hoping to nab a Pulitzer, but Rowena takes it. The stakes are raised when the friend ends up dead, provoking an undercover stint at Hill's ad agency, where Rowena hopes to bait the lecherous boss-man albeit with the help of her on-call tech wiz, Miles (Giovanni Ribisi). This is where "Perfect Stranger" starts to get silly.
We all know that sex sells but, when packaged poorly, it can be a big turn off. Berry is gorgeous and, at times, channels Sharon Stone in "Basic Instinct." Nevertheless, due to flaws in the script and Foley's heavy-handed direction, the film suffers from being over-sexualized, which pushes key scenes into embarrassingly cringe-worthy territory.
Worse than that, the third act reveals that "Perfect Stranger" is not really about sex or its corrupting power. It's about something entirely different: hidden traumas, self-loathing and lingering guilt. Repeatedly featuring Victoria's Secret throughout the narrative does not count as a clever way to explore themes related to non-disclosure and yet "Perfect Stranger" milks the panty peddler for all it's worth.
Rowena is a layered character but we don't fully understand her complexities until the end of the film. It's not wrong for a film to lead the audience on; the best thrillers, in fact, capitalize on this technique. They do this, however, by suffusing the first two acts with details that will make audience members think, "I knew it all along," as the final act concludes, even when they didn't.
That skill is one that co-writer Jon Bokenkamp seemed to have mastered when he penned "Taking Lives," a film that "Perfect Stranger" emulates. Unfortunately he and co-writer Todd Komarnicki failed to reproduce the effect and we're left floundering, with a movie that does nothing but infuriate the viewer and mocks itself further in the last few frames.
It'll be hard to sit through most of it, but if you're going to do it, don't miss the last ten minutes. They contain information barely alluded to in the preceding 100 minutes but they are the most important ten minutes in the entire production. Those instructions aside, "Perfect Stranger" does not come highly recommended unless, of course, you enjoy watching an Oscar winner add another defeat to her now infamous losing streak.
Copyright (c) 2006 by Lauren Simpson
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