Friday, August 17, 2007

Perfect Stranger DVD

DVD Review by Kam Williams

Headline: Convoluted Crime Caper Starring Halle Berry and Bruce Willis Out on DVD

Until she quit her job, Rowena Price (Halle Berry) was an investigative journalist at the New York Courier. But she left the daily newspaper to preserve her integrity right after her boss (Richard Portnow) decided to kill a shocking story she was about to break about Senator Sachs (Gordon MacDonald), a “family values“ Republican she’d caught in a compromising position with a male intern.
The intrepid reporter’s retirement to her spacious, Christopher St. apartment in trendy Greenwich Village turns out to be short-lived, since she’s soon summoned to the morgue to help identify the body of Grace Clayton (Nicki Aycox), her best friend since childhood. Posthumously, their life-ling bond now proves stronger than any beau, because Rowena opts to investigate the grisly killing without even involving the police.
Instead, she enlists the assistance of Miles (Giovanni Ribisi) in this endeavor, a computer whiz who can barely hide the secret crush he has on his brainy and beautiful colleague. The two quickly discern that Grace was having an affair with Harrison Hill (Bruce Willis), a married advertising tycoon with a wandering eye and a very jealous spouse, Mia (Paula Miranda).
Certain that the solution to the mystery is hidden somewhere inside the Hill empire, Rowena adopts an alias and takes some temp work at the ad agency. Her plan is to seduce the weak-willed CEO into making an incriminating admission by sending him flirtatious instant messages from the other side of the office.
If only the balance of Perfect Stranger measured up to this promising premise, but unfortunately, it falls apart soon after this captivating point of departure. The essential problem is that the overplotted production introduces too many suspects, is laced with an abundance of rather obvious red herrings, and takes tons of laughable twists and turns actually which might make you think you’re watching a comedy.
A perfect stinker.

Poor (0 stars)
Rated R for profanity, nudity, sexuality, and disturbing violent images.
Running time: 109 minutes
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
DVD Extras: “The Making of” featurette.

1 comment:

chumly said...

Thanks for the review. I was wondering about that film.