Perfect Stranger (2007) starring Halle Berry, Bruce Willis, Giovanni Ribisi, Richard Portnow, Gary Dourdan, Florencia Lozano, Nicki Aycox directed by James Foley Movie Review

Perfect Stranger (2007)   2/52/52/52/52/5


Halle Berry as Rowena Price in Perfect Stranger (2007)

No Grace for Grace

"Perfect Stranger" is not a made for TV movie but I have watched a lot of made for TV movies, especially thrillers and the only thing different between this and a TV movie is the calibre of the stars. I'm serious because if you ignore that fact we have Halle Berry, Bruce Willis and Giovanni Ribisi the actual storyline is poor, not that thrilling, not sexy either despite trying and as for the twist well it is so outrageous that you feel cheated. In fact ignore the star power for a bit and the fact that money has been spent on giving it a higher end production than a TV movie and what you have is worse than many made for TV movies.

After having her story on a political sex scandal pulled, undercover journalist Rowena Price (Halle Berry - X-Men: The Last Stand) quits and finds herself approached by an old friend called Grace (Nicki Aycox) who has the dirt of advertising exec Harrison Hill (Bruce Willis - 16 Blocks) . When Grace shows up dead Rowena calls on the help of former colleague Miles (Giovanni Ribisi) to try and get the dirty on Harrison and also the evidence which proves he killed Grace.

Bruce Willis as Harrison Hill in Perfect Stranger (2007)

The storyline to "Perfect Stranger" is simple with reporter Rowena going undercover to try and dig the dirt on Harrison Hill, an advertising exec who had been screwing her friend Grace who shows up dead. Rowena having quit her job at the paper after having a story pulled through political influence gets the help of former colleague Miles in basically what is a sting operation to get proof that Harrison was seeing Grace and was the man who killed her. Now the basis of which isn't bad, a nice bit of elaboration here and there with sexual undertones as we have a man who likes sex could turn it into something decent.

But "Perfect Stranger" isn't decent in fact it is quite boring as we watch Rowena trying to seduce Harrison in order to get to his computer and evidence. The fact we know that her friend Miles has the creepy hots for her adds little to the mix and neither does the whole sexual aspect which trust me isn't erotic. Basically for the first 90 minutes "Perfect Stranger" is a seriously boring movie which does nothing new or exciting.

But then we get the twist and too explain that when they made "Perfect Stranger" they made 3 different endings with 3 different killers suggests that basically the first 90 minutes is generic. Not only that when we learn the truth, we learn who killed Grace not only is it outrageous but then so is the spoon-fed explanation for why this person spared Grace no grace. It is simply terrible and whilst within those first generic 90 minutes the clues are there they are not strong, in fact they also feel out of place.

So what we have is a dull but also outrageous thriller which tries to entertain with the shock of a twist, well that and a few big star names. Well whilst we may have Halle Berry and Bruce Willis neither of them shine in fact they both look like they are on auto pilot. Then there is Giovanni Ribisi as Miles who at least does get across the fact that he is creepy when it comes to how much he fancies Rowena, but it is probably the only good thing about the movie.

What this all boils down to is that you expect more from a big screen thriller than what "Perfect Stranger" delivers and in many ways it is weaker than some TV movies. It's only saving grace is that it has a cast of big star names although even then it is only Giovanni Ribisi who comes close to delivering an interesting character.


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