Film Title
Perfect Stranger
Director
James Foley
Starring
- Halle Berry as Rowena Price
- Bruce Willis as Harrison Hill
- Giovanni Ribisi as Miles Haley
A frankly boring, ridiculous and not at all intriguing techno thriller, Perfect Stranger is a film best described as a real mess, despite having the talents of Halle Berry and Bruce Willis.
Rowena Price is a hard-nosed reporter, writing under a pseudonym, who knows how to get a story. With the help of her technologically skilled friend Miles Haley, she is currently on to a major scoop on a senator. Yet her tireless investigation is quashed by her editor after it turns out he is good friends with the senator in question. The end to her investigation makes Rowena angry and she quits her job. Not long after she runs into Grace, a childhood friend who has a potentially damning story to spill. She has been conducting an affair with prominent advertisement businessman Harrison Hill, who has subsequently broke it off after Grace threatened to expose him. She asks Rowena to look into it and see whether it could make a story, yet Rowena dismisses it at first, still angry about her scoop that she had and lost. A few days later, Grace is founded murdered which propels Rowena into finally looking into Hill. Employing her talents for discretion and enlisting Miles, she goes undercover in Hill’s workplace to see if she can find out whether Hill was responsible for Grace’s murder. As well as this, she tracks Hill on-line to a communications site, and subsequently lures him in under a false name. She hopes to trap him in both capacities. But soon enough, Rowena finds herself in over her head and with identities changing like rapid fire, who can she trust in a dangerous game of cat and mouse?
Now I must say that as a director James Foley is very talented, but even his expertise can’t save this shipwreck of a movie. It’s what you would call a losing battle, no director could bring such a film credibility or thrills. A convoluted and frankly nonsensical script is the main thing to blame for the failures of Perfect Stranger. Littered with embarrassingly bad dialogue and too many twists, it is a real car crash. And when everything leads up to the twist ending, it just becomes worse because none of it makes a lot if sense and emerges as just a complete waste of time. A glossy visual style can’t even compensate for these flaws because mostly it resembles so many other films and the technological approach has been done to death on CSI. There is also copious product placement here that just becomes boring and not at all useful with trying to bring at least something of worth from such a bad film as Perfect Stranger. The provided score aims for thrills and tension, yet can’t muster up either of them.
The talented cast assembled for Perfect Stranger can’t even make the movie worth watching. Halle Berry and Bruce Willis are talented stars, but even their best efforts are ruined by the abysmal plotting and execution. The same goes Giovanni Ribisi who provides crazy off the wall mannerisms to his character but because of the film he’s trapped in make it at all memorable. It is always a shame to see talented actors wasted in a movie like this that gives them frankly nothing to do and no decipherable characters to play.
Poorly scripted, mind-numbingly dull and with no life whatsoever, Perfect Stranger is a film to avoid with a capital A.
beetleypete said:
I watched this on a TV showing, attracted by the very good cast. It was as you say, little more than a TV movie, a waste of some good actors, and a chance lost. Jumping on the bandwagon of Internet grooming, dating website revelations, etc, just to catch a trend. And it didn’t work at any level, sadly.
Cheers, Pete.
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vinnieh said:
This movie is best left forgotten.
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Morgan Mills said:
Never seen it but now I never will. I won’t waste my time when there are hundreds of better movies waiting to be watched :).
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vinnieh said:
I recommend that you avoid it at all costs. It really is a shame that talented actors were so wasted in such a stupid movie.
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Cara said:
I’ve seen it…it’s, not good. Just a complete shit show of a plot.
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vinnieh said:
You described the movie perfectly there.
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The Telltale Mind said:
I haven’t seen this since the day it came out and I suppose there is a pretty good reason for that which you seem to have discovered. lol
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vinnieh said:
Yeah, this movie was a complete waste of time.
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fragglerocking said:
Ok it’s on the ‘miss it’ list 🙂
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vinnieh said:
Definitely, there are so many other better movies out there.
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
I’m so glad I never bothered with this. 😦
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vinnieh said:
You saved yourself a whole lot of money and boredom Kim. I seriously want ninety minutes of my life back.
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
😞
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ruth said:
Hmmm, boring & ridiculous thriller, can’t say I’m surprised w/ the two leads. I haven’t been impressed w/ Berry in anything lately and the same w/ Willis. Will definitely avoid this one Vin!
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vinnieh said:
I usually like both actors, but of late they haven’t been in much of the way of quality.
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alexraphael said:
“shipwreck of a movie” – bravo 🙂
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vinnieh said:
It’s the main thing that kept coming to my mind when viewing this film.
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jwforeva said:
LOL, I will avoid this film at all costs haha!
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vinnieh said:
That is probably for the best.
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HusbandAndHusband said:
Interesting story about this film, years ago when it first came out, I fell asleep watching it and never looked back.
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vinnieh said:
I wish I’d fallen asleep when watching this movie.
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HusbandAndHusband said:
HAHAHAHA I just remember it being really bad.
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vinnieh said:
I seriously want the time back that the movie took.
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Sabiscuit said:
I enjoyed this film very much, Vinnie. I saw it about three times because I wanted to see if there was any clue I missed because the ending came up so suddenly. However, it turns out that I just liked it a lot. Not thrilled with Halle Berry’s acting but she’s great to look at. xo
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vinnieh said:
I just didn’t dig the movie that much. Thanks for giving your opinion though.
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Cici said:
I watched this movie because of the cast and that it was a thriller, but what an utter fail! It had such an awesome cast and director, I don’t know what went wrong!
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vinnieh said:
It baffles me that a movie with all these potentially good things just turned out to be utter crap. The mind boggles.
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Cici said:
I know! What should have been epic turned bleh! But I don’t think Halle Berry should act in thrillers all the ones she’s done are always not as good as her other gigs!.
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vinnieh said:
I do like Halle Berry, but I find she excels in dramas. Those are the movies that really show her mettle and talent.
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Cici said:
Yeah not almost scary thrillers
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vinnieh said:
Take note directors out there, give Miss Berry a drama.
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Cici said:
How was your Easter? Hope you had fun!
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vinnieh said:
My Easter was really nice and I spent it with family.
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Cici said:
Me too! With a lot of sleep as well
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vinnieh said:
And tons of chocolate.
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Cici said:
Mine was ice cream…
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vinnieh said:
I love me some ice cream.
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