Perfect Stranger (2007) Review

By Jake Dee

Director: James Foley
Starring: Halle Berry, Bruce Willis
Released: 2007

Oh the woes of Oscar winning actors! The great Alan Arkin has said on more than one occasion that after his achievement for supporting actor Little Miss Sunshine, he couldn’t get work for an entire following year. His advice to Academy Award winners; do something wild and silly as an encore, that way people can’t expect much from you right away. Critics will tune out until that awards cache simmers, then it simply becomes about the work again; giving the actor the freedom to truly explore a role in their own way, independent of shackled incentives to remain lime lit or buzz worthy. Halle Berry, who earned the golden statuette in 2001 for Monster’s Ball, seems to be taking Arkin’s advice to a whole new stratosphere (although she won the Oscar five years earlier than Arkin). Let’s see; Gothika, Catwoman, the second and third X-Men pictures, etc. Now we have Perfect Stranger, just another stitch in a consecutive thread of movies which has blanketed the bulk of Berry’s talent.

Halle plays Rowena Price, a corporate journalist who has yet to land her major break out story. As the film opens, she interviews Senator Sachs; a cunning attempt to pump incriminating admission statements regarding his own sexual politics. She tricks him, he misspeaks, and now Rowena is in line to get her first legitimate piece of investigative journalism sprung into the mainstream. We’re introduced to her friend and techno-aid Miles Haley (Giovanni Ribisi); they meet at a bar and celebrate the news break with a few rounds. Only the story gets blocked by some corporate hierarchy, Rowena becomes livid, desperate. Then she runs into a childhood friend named Grace (Nicki Aycox), who divulges her detailed sexual romps with a famous New York Ad Exec named Harrison Hill (Bruce Willis). Rowena, shocked at her old friend’s dastardly deeds, jumps on the story as a way to keep her name fresh. Then Grace turns up dead, traces of belladonna found in her bloodstream.

Miles then helps Rowena coyly infiltrate Harrison Hill’s Ad company under the pseudonym Katherine Pogue, after all it was Hill who was last involved with Grace, right? Turns out, Hill is one of these sex chat perverts who skulks around mid-day looking for lewd conversation with complete strangers, whose gender we all know can never really be ascertained. Rowena starts to become chummy with Hill in the office, and Miles hacks into the big shot’s email and chat room accounts. Before long, Rowena and Hill are chatting via internet, the latter’s intentions seem to align with the sort of malfeasance surrounding Grace’s murder. Hill is sleazy, devious! Ro and Miles become infatuated with pinning Grace’s murder on Hill.

Producers nixed Willis’ initial Method approach to his portrayal of Harrison Hill, sex chat pervert, as “too Asian.”

The movie has roads full of twists and turns, most of which foreseeable. I read there were three different endings shot, all with different resolutions. This fact trumps any notion of the “snap” ending being edgy or unpredictable; it really just proves how little confidence the filmmakers had in a direct, concrete vision of where the story should go. It’s one of these cheap, lazy tack on endings that Hollywood seems to embrace more and more all the time. I don’t want to ruin the flick for anyone, but I’m not really recommending it either, so…just think Secret Window or High Tension, same sort of deal here!

Perfect Stranger tries to be many things. It’s a technological thriller, attempting to raise questions about internet security, online identity; you now the kind of thing that was addressed a decade plus earlier in The Net. It’s a suspense film, but the only heart pumping scenes come when seeing Halle decked in one of those tight power suits. Good Heavens! The last act of the film reveals itself to be a mystery whodunit; all the while peppered with light humor and over the top melodramatic moments with Halle screaming atop her lungs.

The movie falls flat in most of these areas, making it hard to classify as a whole. It’s pretty mediocre in every way! Too bad, because director James Foley’s shown talent in solid movies like At Close Range and Glengarry Glen Ross; but I suspect the casting had a lot to do with it! A far as Halle Berry goes, has she lost the talent? No! Look for her return to top shelf acting in the later 2007 release Things We Lost in the Fire, alongside Benicio Del Toro.

Favorite Part: Halle’s Red Dress!

The Overall Dee-Cision: Don’t Watch It!

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