Is it Friday night? Are you sitting at home with nothing to do? Well, I got something for you to do.
Perfect Stranger stars Halle Berry as a journalist named Rowena who goes undercover to bust the man she suspects killed her former friend Grace (Nicki Aycox) After becoming frustrated with her employer, Rowena quits her job at a newspaper and decides to pursue stories on her own without the shackles of censorship.
After she discovers that Grace has been murdered, Rowena and her close friend from the paper, Miles (Giovanni Ribisi) decide to go on an investigative mission inside the business run by the man she believes killed her friend, Harrison Hill (Bruce Willis) Over the next 1h49m, we watch as Rowena is hired as a temp at Hill's offices, and as she looks for evidence to prove that Hill killed Grace after she threatened to reveal their affair to his wife. She talks to the office gossip, Gina (Clea Lewis) and chats with Hill over the internet under an alias in order to get to know him better so she can get close and get the info she needs.
Rowena gathers the proof along with the friend she so unappreciatively neglects, Miles, as she inches closer to seducing Hill into the trap she's about to spring.
Halle Berry is really awful in this movie. Really awful. Willis is OK, but the movie is clearly stolen by two actors. The first is the very surprising Clea Lewis. She is by far the most likable character and she plays it well. The second is the VERY undervalued Giovanni Ribisi who doesn't get the respect he deserves as a very talented actor. I have always loved Ribisi. Ribisi and Lewis have a certain charisma to them that sets their performances so far apart from everyone else's.
Is the movie a great movie in the typical sense? No. Not really. Is the ending contrived? Very much so. But the fact is that this movie is not trying to be something it's not. It's not trying to be a great thriller like Se7en or Silence of the Lambs, instead it's simply trying to be a Friday night popcorn flick with a bit of an edge, and in that context, it succeeds to an extent.
Overall this movie is decent for what it's trying to be and probably doesn't deserve the horrid reviews it's been getting so far. People need to take it for what it's worth and if you do that, you may find yourself somewhat entertained.
6/10
Perfect Stranger stars Halle Berry as a journalist named Rowena who goes undercover to bust the man she suspects killed her former friend Grace (Nicki Aycox) After becoming frustrated with her employer, Rowena quits her job at a newspaper and decides to pursue stories on her own without the shackles of censorship.
After she discovers that Grace has been murdered, Rowena and her close friend from the paper, Miles (Giovanni Ribisi) decide to go on an investigative mission inside the business run by the man she believes killed her friend, Harrison Hill (Bruce Willis) Over the next 1h49m, we watch as Rowena is hired as a temp at Hill's offices, and as she looks for evidence to prove that Hill killed Grace after she threatened to reveal their affair to his wife. She talks to the office gossip, Gina (Clea Lewis) and chats with Hill over the internet under an alias in order to get to know him better so she can get close and get the info she needs.
Rowena gathers the proof along with the friend she so unappreciatively neglects, Miles, as she inches closer to seducing Hill into the trap she's about to spring.
Halle Berry is really awful in this movie. Really awful. Willis is OK, but the movie is clearly stolen by two actors. The first is the very surprising Clea Lewis. She is by far the most likable character and she plays it well. The second is the VERY undervalued Giovanni Ribisi who doesn't get the respect he deserves as a very talented actor. I have always loved Ribisi. Ribisi and Lewis have a certain charisma to them that sets their performances so far apart from everyone else's.
Is the movie a great movie in the typical sense? No. Not really. Is the ending contrived? Very much so. But the fact is that this movie is not trying to be something it's not. It's not trying to be a great thriller like Se7en or Silence of the Lambs, instead it's simply trying to be a Friday night popcorn flick with a bit of an edge, and in that context, it succeeds to an extent.
Overall this movie is decent for what it's trying to be and probably doesn't deserve the horrid reviews it's been getting so far. People need to take it for what it's worth and if you do that, you may find yourself somewhat entertained.
6/10