Perfect Stranger (2007) User Reviews

Just remember, this cost $60m to make.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 6/10 · 27 August 2018]

Unlike many of the reviewers on here, I quite liked the main body of the film. I love murder mysteries, suspense, whodunits, so it's always nice when a big budget mystery comes out.

TV mysteries are always the best, Agatha Christie penned mysteries are definitely the best, you are given clues, taken up blind alleys, but if you're smart, you can work out the puzzle. The problem with Perfect Stranger, is that the ending feels like it was tagged on because nobody was smart enough to come up with an intelligent, logical conclusion, that actually made sense. I felt robbed by the twist, the whole conclusion made absolutely no sense. The closing twenty minutes almost made me feel like I'd switched channels, which is a shame, because the build up was really smart, I enjoyed the tension, I liked the way the story was going, the eye pictures, drops etc, it was clever, then we get the rug pulled from underneath our feet.

Halle Berry did a great job, Bruce Willis was also very good, in a very different role for him. Disheartening, but with the likes of Gone Girl and Girl on a Train the genre is still alive.

Watchable, 6/10

ludicrous ending

[antoniotierno · 6/10 · 19 April 2007]

"Perfect Stranger" is quite thrilling but the finale simply absurd, moronic. It doesn't lack thrills and pshycology, being it a phsycological thriller. Played intensely, with moments of entertainment not delicious but decent though, everything's spoiled by the foolish and outrageous ending - the mystery resolution is too convoluted. It looks like a pre-packedged thriller, "homogenized" I'd say, with much part of it taking place in chats. Bruce Willis and Halle Berry have acted much better in past, but are watchable regardless, as well as Giovanni Ribisi; suspense thriller is made bearable but eventually degenerates..

Swiss Cheese of a Script and the Audience is One of the Holes

[gradyharp · 5/10 · 23 August 2007]

PERFECT STRANGER is a fast-paced little crime mystery of a film that despite the innumerable sidebars of undeveloped information scattered throughout the script does manage to surprise the audience at the end. The movie seems to be a vehicle for the beautiful Halle Berry to show off her skills and other assets: Bruce Willis is billed as a co-star but his role is minor and unexpectedly underplayed - a nice little tour de force for the king of action flicks.

Berry plays a reporter with a man's nom de plume that allows her to uncover secrets of famous people for newsy stories. Once fired from her job for uncovering the deeds of a Senator who is promoted by her newspaper, she teams her good buddy Giovanni Ribisi, a wizard of information about the media and internet spying, and the two go after a wealthy ad executive (Bruce Willis) when the murder of one of Berry's old girlfriends stirs both her wrath and her own secret demons. The chase is on with Berry playing games of deceit backed by the skills of Ribisi. And just when the plot seems to have uncovered the murderer, then another line of story involving Ribisi and Berry explodes the audience's tracking of the crime with a rather good ending.

Berry is fine in her role as is Ribisi with his: Willis is not on the screen long enough to form an opinion, a fact that is actually rather a refreshing twist! The camera loves Berry in all her glamour and manages to turn sordid when the plot elements necessitate that. It is a fair evening's diversion and were it not for all the 'dropped ideas' that plead development, it would be a stronger thriller. Grady Harp

Everybody Has a Secret

[claudio_carvalho · 7/10 · 21 October 2007]

In New York, the investigative reporter Rowena Price (Halle Berry) sees her scoop about a gay senator spiked by her editor. She quits her job in the newspaper and meets with her childhood friend Grace (Nicki Aycox) by chance in the subway. Grace tells Ro that she had just been dumped by the powerful and wealthy owner of the greatest New Yorker advertising agency, Harrison Hill (Bruce Willis), and she was threatening to tell his wife about their affair. When Grace is found dead, Harrison becomes Rowena's prime suspect. With the support of her hacker friend and former colleague Miles Haley (Giovanni Ribisi), Ro is hired for a temporary work in Harrison's agency to get close to the executive and investigate his life.

"Perfect Stranger" has a good story, with a surprising twist; the lead cast has the names of Halle Berry, Bruce Willis and Giovanni Ribisi; unfortunately, the screenplay does not work well since it does not create an empathy of the viewer with the characters, which have dirty secrets. In the end, this film is a good and forgettable entertainment. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "A Estranha Perfeita" ("The Perfect Stranger")

Computer thriller, what's the big deal?

[DSP919 · 7/10 · 14 April 2007]

I think the relentless attacks on this movie particularly by critics are just totally unfair. Reviews are running about 10-1 against it in some major publications. It is frequently referred to as "conventional" or clichéd. In the first place, they criticize it for pandering to public interest because it is partially about computer sex, and also about a congressman who has illicit affairs with boys, and an investigative reporter who tries to find the lowdown on a powerful ad executive who is cheating on his wife. The Congressman/boy scandal actually happened last year in Washington,D.C. In many movies nowadays computers and cell phones play a role ("The Departed" for example) and at least two recent highly-praised movies ("Me And You and Everyone We Know" and "Hard Candy") are specifically about computer sex. Sex always sells (there are numerous sexual references as well in "Blades Of Glory", but this is just Will Ferrell showing his Saturday Night Live! background, it is funny, and to a large extent "Blades" rises above this) and to criticize "Perfect Stranger" for being sleazy for this reason is hardly fair. Then they criticize the acting performances. I think Halle Berry should be allowed to do her thing. With this movie, she should become an even bigger box office draw.

The movie's fast pace really impressed me. It was somewhat like "The Departed" in this respect, and "The Departed" won an Oscar for editing. You have to stay on your toes to understand what is happening. I thought the detail about Harrison Hill's wife's connection with belladonna was interesting, and it is historically accurate that serial killers have used atropine for years to kill people. I thought Giovanni Ribisi's character as a sleazy computer geek who has his secret lust for Rowena was well-done. There being all types of abnormal psychology, from multiple personality to neurotic, this one seems somewhat middling, perhaps above average, on a scale of 1-10. and the movie has many interesting minor characters, like Rowena's mother, who in the end plays a significant role. I enjoyed the arrest, trial and conviction of Hill--but things are not as they appear to be. Certainly not a movie for rubes or farmers or children, I think this is a sophisticated New York thriller worth the $6 price of admission, though not perfect. I also enjoyed both "Premonition" and "The Reaping" which movies were likewise trashed by critics for the same reasons.

What's the point of guessing if the movie doesn't play fair?

[keiichi73 · 2/10 · 15 April 2007]

After viewing Perfect Stranger, I went on the film's page at the IMDb, and found out that there were three different endings filmed, each one with a different character being guilty. This does not surprise me at all. This is a movie that jerks us around simply for the sole fact that it wants to jerk us around. It doesn't want us to figure it out, and it doesn't play fair. When I realized that there was no point in following the clues and the movie simply plays to the demands of the filmmaker and which ending worked best with test audiences, it made me hate this shallow and silly excuse for a thriller even more.

The film centers on an investigative journalist named Rowena (Halle Berry) who specializes in going undercover and exposing corporate and political frauds with the help of her creepy best friend and co-worker Miles (Giovanni Ribisi) who seems to have a certain unhealthy obsession with her that is painfully obvious to the audience, yet Rowena seems blissfully ignorant to. Rowena's having a tough time after she quits her job due to one of her stories falling through and a childhood friend of hers named Grace (Nicki Aycox) turns up dead. The two women just happened to have a chance meeting in a subway shortly before Grace's murder, and she told Rowena about how she had been having an on-line affair with a powerful New York ad executive named Harrison Hill (Bruce Willis). Grace had mentioned that their relationship had recently soured, and that Harrison was no longer talking to her. When evidence pops up that Grace may have been pregnant, Harrison becomes all the more suspicious to Rowena, especially since the man is married and has a long history of past affairs. Deciding to investigate on her own, Rowena turns up at Harrison's corporate office as a Temp and tries to get close to him, with Miles trying to dig up more dirt on the guy. Naturally, things are not what they seem, and the movie has more red herrings than a fresh fish market to keep us guessing in sheer futility.

There's nothing exactly wrong with the concept behind Perfect Stranger, and director James Foley certainly gives the movie an attractive look. The problem lies with the screenplay by Todd Komarnicki. He seems to be trying to make an erotic murder thriller along the lines of Basic Instinct, but the movie is not very erotic nor is it very thrilling. The pace is leisurely to the point of being nearly stagnant, and the few sex scenes contained within the film are completely and instantly forgettable. I guess we're supposed to be enthralled by the twisting plot that casts everyone who plays a major role into a shadowy light. The movie stresses time and time again that everyone has dirty secrets, and yes, many secrets are exposed. The problem is almost all of these secrets exist simply to throw us off course. Not one leads to the correct answer. The answer exists simply in whatever of the three endings worked out the best. A thriller like this has to be planned out and lead to one true answer, not whatever answer the filmmakers feel like.

Long before we find out that the movie doesn't even want to play fair, Perfect Stranger never truly captures our attention to start with. The characters are murky at best and, as previously mentioned, exist simply to lead us in multiple directions. They are victims of a plot that knows it's clever. They have no personality and no real motivation other than to act as red herrings. A good example is the character of Harrison Hill, who is slimy simply because he is supposed to be slimy for the sake of the story. He cheats on his wife, he threatens his business enemies, and when he finds out that one of his employees has been leaking info to an outside source, he physically abuses him right in front of all the other employees. None of these actions truly matter. They have no motivation and they do not drive his character to any sort of goal. We can't become attached to these people, because they're not even human to start with.

Since winning the Oscar for Monster's Ball, Halle Berry seems to be on a strange single-minded quest to kill her career. Chalk up another loss for Berry. She's passable at best, but just about any other actress could have filled her shoes, and she brings nothing to the character. Same goes for Bruce Willis, who has absolutely no charisma, and we cannot understand why he is such a ladies man except for the fact that the movie tells us he is. The only performance that does stand out is Giovanni Ribisi as Miles, and it's for all the wrong reasons. He is immediately suspicious to us, because Ribisi plays up the weirdness of his character almost from the instant he walks onto the screen. This makes the fact that Berry's character does not even seem the least bit unnerved by him make her come across as a total idiot.

I will not reveal the ending of Perfect Stranger, but I will say this. When the ending comes, did you personally see anything during the course of the movie that could have led us to the conclusion it wants to lead us to? We don't get the full story beforehand. All the clues, all the evidence, all the paths it had led us down had nothing to do with anything. The movie is a great big exploding cigar that laughs at us when everything blows up in our face. There are no right and wrong answers. Just one very uninteresting movie that doesn't even have the nerve to play fair.

Not mindblowingly good but not that bad...

[julie_bartholemy · 7/10 · 11 June 2007]

I went to see this movie because well...I had seen everything else that could possibly interest me. So I got my ticket, sat down and expected a really really bad movie because everything I heard about this movie was 'that' bad. And to my surprise it wasn't 'that' bad.

Sure it's not what one might expect from an Oscar winning actress but still, not that bad! People should really give this movie a break, I have seen much much worse over the last 18 months. This movie is just a nice easy to watch movie, if you're looking for a real bad thriller that tries to be sexy try to watch 'Basic Instinct 2' and I say try because that movie is 'that bad'.

So put in perspective, 'Perfect Stranger' delivers enough to be entertaining in it's genre, it's not the best thriller ever but it sure isn't the worst, far from it.

Say what you will, I enjoyed it :)

Just another twist movie with an uncreative storyline

[nonefornow · 2/10 · 11 April 2007]

I watched Perfect Stranger at a preview at my local theater this past weekend, and next to the scantily clad Halle Berry, there was no reason to go watch this movie. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with movies with twists, but as long as they're done with thought, taste, and creativity. The problem in this movie is writers have all the freedom in the world to guide a viewer's mind and place where the twists lie. It is too easy for writers to trick the audience, and to some audience members, the simple trick in itself is good enough to make the movie "great." Well, this doesn't cut it for me. I want a movie that connects, makes me think, has me connect with a character, or even teaches me something. Perfect Stranger lacked meaning, taste, and creativity and is just another one of those "movies with a twist." FYI: The movie was a long advertisement with way too much product placement. Even if the movie does bomb, the movie industry would have made up for the loss with the amount of advertising they put in the movie.

It's not that bad.

[Sirus_the_Virus · 6/10 · 22 September 2009]

I didn't think that Perfect stranger was that bad. It's not a great film but it's not that bad. I thought that the twist in the end was surprising, but I didn't like it. The twist in the end of the film is definitely surprising, but it is somewhat irritating. You are watching this film, thinking that Bruce Willis is evil, then the film slaps you in the face. I like surprises though.

Halle Berry stars as a journalist. When she finds out that her friend is murdered, then she goes undercover. She starts working for Harrison Hill(The very good Bruce Willis), who she thinks killed her friend. Because her friend is the village bicycle. Berry's character and Harrison Hill start to flirt. But she is flirting with danger.

I'll admit that this isn't a great film. I do think it is at least worth a rental. Perfect stranger is neither fantastic or disaster. I think it's an okay thriller that has twists that you don't expect. don't believe what you hear. I think that you should at least rent Perfect stranger. You may disagree with me, but I didn't think that it was that bad.

Perfect stranger:**1/2 out of ****

A pitiful suspense thriller with an incredibly pretentious script

[muons · 1/10 · 23 July 2018]

This is a suspense thriller with the quality of mediocre tv series. Well at least, this was my impression in the first hour or so. Through its normal flow, the movie has already been limping with bad acting, pedestrian directing and haphazard editing of a drab story but the pathetic twist at the end topped it all. Some mystery fans like to guess plot twists from small clues of unfolding events. There's no way one can predict this one which totally turns upside down the whole plot on its head. But make no mistake. This is not a praise for the scriptwriter who apparently got carried away in his attempt to challenge those predictors instead of writing a coherent story. After the final plot which came out of nowhere, nothing you've seen until that time makes sense in this miserable dreck. Avoid it at all cost unless you take pleasure in your intelligence being insulted.

Noir-ish surprise

[the_Poppuns · 8/10 · 13 April 2007]

I've read all the negative comments and I'm starting to think someone who hates Halle Berry has created multiple accounts. I hadn't intended on seeing it, I just felt like going to the movies this afternoon. The movie I wanted to see didn't start until later so I said 'what the heck, I'll give it a try'. This movie was a pleasant surprise for me.

I called it noir-ish because that's the feeling I got from it. And I have to say that sitting in the theater I thought, 'Gee, it's nice to see a movie with two real live movies stars in it.' You get all kinds of weird combinations these days with stars and starlets and rap artists that it's no wonder that most movies are awful.

In this case you have a story about a woman played by Halle Berry who is an investigative reporter for a major newspaper. She has a great story that her paper decides to not use. In anger, she quits, and at the same time a maybe even more important story, involving an advertising giant played by Bruce Willis, falls in her lap. So the movie is about her trying to get to the bottom of this story along with the help of her friend/colleague, played by Giovanni Ribisi. Now I'm purposely not including any spoilers because I personally like to know as little as possible going into a film.

I think a good number of people who like movies like The Usual Suspects or Lucky Number Slevin will like something like this. Now where I think we can really tell is if you also saw and didn't hate the Black Dahlia. A lot of people didn't like it. I loved it. But being very specific there were people who didn't like it because they felt the ending was too quick and that there was no way you could have figured it out with the information at hand until the movie explained it for you at the end. I disagree but those people may have a problem with this. Anyone who wants to figure mysteries out before the end and doesn't want to go along for the ride may have the age old complaint of "how are we supposed to figure it out if they only told you (insert important plot point) at the end?" I'm not one of those people. I like to go along for the ride. That being said, I do think there is enough info that if you really want to guess at the ending you could do it.

The acting was great. I'm not that big on Halle Berry but she did the best job I've seen her do in a while. Bruce is becoming someone I definitely trust with my money. And, imo, it's Giovanni Ribisi who stole the show here. He's getting better all the time.

This movie is for adults, not that it's too much for a teenager to handle. I just don't really think it's something your average teen would be interested in. And it's an R for a couple of reasons. So I'm going to recommend it for older mystery and/or noir fans who don't mind not being able to figure out the ending.

Not A Masterpiece, But An Involving Thriller Which Fooled Me Twice

[museumofdave · 7/10 · 5 March 2013]

I have noticed that a good deal of film criticism seems to have taken place before someone has even seen the film, that a hostile attitude is in place as the film begins, perhaps because of the star, perhaps the money paid, perhaps a reflection of the dismaying trend in politics to not engage, the attitude that the film has got to please in every way in a manner expected or it's bad.

I mention this simply because there are a lot of things this suspense thriller is not. But there's much that it is, and it fooled me--and then fooled me again. Are you ever in the mood for a thriller? Just sort of good grade carnival ride that holds together and takes you to a world you never want to inhabit but love to watch for a few hours? This is not a great film by any means, but it is an efficiently made suspense tale that held together for me, anchored by convincing central performances, and without too much gratuitous gore or sophomoric attitude.

Berry and Ribisi develop a strange friendship that holds them together in times of stress, and Bruce Willis walks through the film knowing you'll just watch Bruce Willis ambling smoothly through a film--but is he a killer or isn't he? This is a perfect popcorn movie to watch when you've had it with the political news, when you're worn out with too much reading, and you just want to cruise with some suspenseful action and feel you got your money's worth

Smart or dumb?

[BandSAboutMovies · 5/10 · 19 September 2022]

Perfect Stranger is at once the smartest and quite literally dumbest movie I've ever seen. I'm not certain it was directed by James Foley, who also made Glengary Glen Ross and two Fifty Shades movies to keep up that intelligent/imbecilic duality, and writers and Todd Komarnicki and Jon Bokenkamp, or if it was all loaded into an artificial intelligence and told the words neo noir, giallo and erotic thriller. This was the best that mid 2000s computer moviemaking got.

Rowena Price (Halle Berry) and her researcher/dick in glass Miles Haley (Giovanni Ribisi) have just been kicked off the biggest story of their careers because powerful men can do that. As she drunkenly stumbles home, her old friend Grace Clayton (Nicki Aycox) finds her in the subway and asks for help taking down the man she just broke up with, married ad executive Harrison Hill (Bruce Willis), giving her pages after pages - don't print out the internet - of their sex chats.

Yes, this is a movie that hits two of my favorite genres: advertising movies and films in which technology is outdated on release.

Rowena goes undercover and gets a job at Harrison's company H2A, which is really owned by his rich artist wife Mia (Paula Miranda). So here's where I tell you that I've worked in advertising 27 years and no intern gets that access to their boss, even if she looks like Halle Berry, and the ad campaign that everyone is losing their minds over that H2A did for Victoria's Secret - "I know Victoria's Secret" - is the kind of work that gets killed before it even gets written on the wall of ideas that will soon get killed on the first day of the worst ideas.

It's about this time that I'm reminded that James Foley also directed one of my favorite lunatic films, Fear, a movie in which Marky Mark fingerblasts Reese Witherspoon to The Sundays on the soundtrack while they ride a rollercoaster.

This movie somehow tops that as Berry uses her advanced and antiquated computer to simulate Willis' voice on her computer so they can have the worst cybersex on the internet.

Back in October 2006, this movie took marketing to new levels, as Grace, Hil's lesbian bodyguard Josie and his wife all introduced blogs dating back to September 2006, along with YouTube videos of the actresses reading their blogs in character.

That is more future leaning than the shrine to Berry that shows up late in the film, which had to have been animated in 1997. This entire film is like a quest for Berry to make something worse than Catwoman and better than Monster's Ball and somehow pull both off flawlessly.

They shot three endings of this because they couldn't figure out what worked best. Can you imagine that? Of course, in true giallo fashion, they went with the least likely suspect, which is the one fact that makes me consider this movie a success. It's so audacious that again, I can't decide if it's the worst writing I've ever seen or the best. This movie confuses me so badly and I know I'll have to watch it again and either hate or like it this time.

Good Movie Coupled With Nice Twists

[qmross · 7/10 · 21 March 2007]

This movie is definitely one that you have seen before. If you watch a lot of movies you will notice the recycled plot. As I sat watching this movie in a invite only screener, I noticed in the first ten minutes that Halle Berry cannot act. Her acting was mediocre, but the actor Bruce Willis and Giovanni Ribisi saved this movie. Halle Berry is a beautiful face, but that is all she offered here.

This movie had some nice twists coupled with a nice elements likened to the game Clue. I say that because you constantly go through the assumptions of who did it, and how it was performed. I am glad I got to see it for free. It is worth taking a date to, but definitely will not win any awards. The whole viewing experience makes you think about how many times will Halle Berry play this role (Gothicka).

Happy Viewing

The Perfect Thriller for the Perfect Ending

[moviewizguy · 6/10 · 20 December 2007]

In New York, the investigative reporter Rowena Price sees her scoop about a gay senator spiked by her editor. She quits her job in the newspaper and meets with her childhood friend Grace by chance in the subway. Grace tells Ro that she had just been dumped by the powerful and wealthy owner of the greatest New Yorker advertising agency, Harrison Hill, and she was threatening to tell his wife about their affair. When Grace is found dead, Harrison becomes Rowena's prime suspect. With the support of her hacker friend and former colleague Miles Haley, Ro is hired for a temporary work in Harrison's agency to get close to the executive and investigate his life.

I was looking forward to this film, although critics panned it. I heard that there was a twist ending in this film and you know this gets me excited. What if it was like "Dead Silence"? The movie was bad with a good twist ending? Actually, the answer was vice versa: The movie was good with a great twist ending.

Sure, some maybe call if ridiculous and preposterous but when you're being entertained, who cares? This is a stylish techno-thriller and there are some suspenseful moments. The twists and turns work for me and so does the performances.

Maybe it's another forgettable thriller, yeah. Maybe it's a preposterous, A-list cast, overwrought thriller, yes. But maybe it's an entertaining, stylish thriller which will keep your attention until the satisfying twist ending.

Weak and disappointing

[bruno04 · 3/10 · 11 April 2007]

What in the world has happened to Halle Berry? Can't she act any more? Judging from this movie I'd say: Yes - she can't... And Bruce Willis is ... well, he's Bruce Willis. And why does she have to participate in a mediocre thriller like this one? Because it is very mediocre. The beginning is quite promising, and I was ready for a nice, clean thriller. But what followed was like a bad version of some Michael Crichton novel. Oh, and the filmmakers filmed three different endings to the film, each with a different character as the killer? Then they must have chosen the worst ending. The film is not creative, not inventive, implausible, sometimes ridiculous. No, it's not a disaster. But a major disappointment.

A quiet B-movie, worth watching for those who like to follow murder-mystery plots

[Chris_Docker · 5/10 · 16 April 2007]

Have you ever met someone who you didn't like at first but, after you made an effort, they kinda got your attention?

I had to make the effort with Perfect Stranger. It is not an easy movie to like. Its direction seems pedestrian, the camera-work and editing wanting, and the acting wasted. The characters are not very nice people, but not evil enough to be anti-heroes.

But let's work backwards. It has a killer ending. If you worked hard to follow the complex plot, your efforts pay off. That makes you feel good. Like listening to a person you can't get away from who has droned for an hour and a half and then suddenly what they are saying makes a warped kind of sense. The plot might be convoluted, but I have to admire the way it fits the horrible, cynical pieces together. An hour afterwards, it reminds me of old B-movies that you might dig up and pick little gems from their rotting carcass.

So what's it about? Well, it could be about anything - no, that's me being too disingenuous. It's a mystery thriller. A whodunnit. It has Halle Berry moving through several personas and Bruce Willis being quite disgusting and yet getting our sympathies. She's an investigative reporter. He's the head of an advertising agency. Then there's some fabulous shots from the newly-completed 7 World Trade Center, the first of the new buildings on the former WTC site. Look out for stunning wraparound views of Lower Manhattan, the Hudson River, and New Jersey.

Annoyingly, the film doesn't glamorise its strengths. A key early conversation between Halle Berry (Rowena) and her pal Grace is almost overpowered by the background noise of the subway trains. Almost, but not quite - are you paying attention? The views of New York are more impressive when you think back to them. But at the time we see them, we are trying to figure out what kind of game Harrison Hill is playing. Similarly, an early scene of outrage that could have grandstanded Berry's acting talents is subsumed into a very ordinary establishing shot. But condemn it early on at your peril. Dismiss it and you forego the enjoyment of a well-constructed mystery, even if it doesn't live up to the star ratings its big names might suggest. This film doesn't follow the 'good' rules, you long for something to spice it up. Some flashy camera-work, fancy edits maybe. Or something sexy with Halle Berry's legs? And you don't get much of that. Does the story have you by the balls yet? Probably not. "Stroke a man's (beep), you get him for one night - stroke his ego and you get him for life." Grace's comment only hits us after we leave the cinema. It might not be that simple, but Rowena, like any good journalist, only does 'sexy' here for effect.

Rowena's pal winds up dead. Very dead. Horribly, bloated, facelessly dead. At this point, I was still thinking how they 'should' have directed the movie to give it more impact. Later on, I appreciate the understated style. It also leaves you free to follow the plot more carefully than if you are having clues and red herrings rammed down your throat.

Rowena takes on another identity to get a job at Harrison Hill's agency, as well as some more online personas. The powerful Mr Hill seems to have been in everyone's pants (even though he has a genuinely stunning wife). Yet Willis plays the role with such honesty that we almost don't want him to get caught out. He might be a sleaze but Rowena's co-investigator, Miles, is a sleaze-ball of a different kind. Miles does online jiggery-pokery to find out stuff for Rowena. But he is also a different kind of twisted power-tripper and runs rings around her.

Perfect Stranger lulls us into moral condemnation. Its outlook of the world is totally cynical. "Show me a beautiful woman and I'll show you a man who's tired of (beep)ing her," confides a Hill employee to Berry. When you meet the perfect stranger do you assume the best? Or do you assume the worst?

"To a certain extent, everybody lives a double life," says Academy Award winner Halle Berry. "We're all complicated beings; we're different people all the time - for example, a woman might act differently at work than she does at home. We all hide something, even from our best friends. This movie highlights that and takes it to the next level, showing what we're capable of when we're forced to come to terms with it."

OK, we know that nothing and no-one is perfect, and we accept that they everyone and everything is 'packaged', right down to the Veronica Secret gift bag that the ad agency is giving away. But ultimately Perfect Stranger is packaged as carelessly as if it were wrapped in second-hand gift wrap. That makes it easy to dismiss. Or loathe. But its self-effacing, redeeming qualities are perhaps sufficient not to ignore. Mystery thriller geeks, get your ticket now, before it is condemned to obscurity.

(note - I have censored certain words from the quotes from the film for this site)

Sad more than thrilling

[Dr_Coulardeau · 7/10 · 24 April 2010]

It is difficult to speak about this film without spoiling any kind of pleasure because the suspense of this thriller is all contained in the several last minute revelations. Let say that The logic of the story is as simple as simple can be. A child who sees a crime will be traumatized for life and will become either a blackmailer or a criminal, according to the degree of involvement in the initial crime. Then the best cover up for your perversions is to become a journalist that will discover and publicize the little secrets of the powerful. And if the powerful you are targeting have no little secrets, then just build some for them and you may even send them to prison in your place, if you are swift enough. In other words there is only mud and manure in this world and those who carry most of it are those who expose others, and at times without any basis at all, just out of spite and jealousy, or fear and vengeance. The film is rather well done though it is not in any way outstanding.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne, University Paris 8 Saint Denis, University Paris 12 Créteil, CEGID

A complete waste of time (and that's an understatement)

[puzgolac · 2/10 · 30 September 2007]

I've never commented movies here but I just had to write a word of warning to anyone who's planning on watching this. The movie is slow, boring, without suspense or tension. The story is lame, nothing new nor original, nor even interesting. One is under the impression that they just threw ideas on paper not bothering to shape them into a coherent story (and I use the term "idea" in the broadest possible meaning). Hence all the holes and illogic places in the plot. Sorry guys, but a few close-ups of Halle Berry's ass aren't going to make up for the terrible story. The characters are so underdeveloped that they are not even two-dimensional. Acting is just terrible and even though none of the actors did well, Halle Berry must be singled out as absolutely the worst of them. She just can't act. Even when she forces herself to change facial expression nothing really changes in her acting. She might as well be reading the phone book out loud. Scenes which should be dramatic and emotional are just plain ridiculous. Plus, she's too old for the role she was playing here. Curiously enough, she's not the one wearing the most makeup in this movie. Cue Bruce Willis. He is now running neck to neck with Sylwester Stallone in the "who's wearing the most makeup" race. Apart from that, he's just being there doing his thing, being exactly the same as in any other movie he's acted in. One wonders why they even bother to change the name his characters, because he portrays them all in the same way.

As for the "twist" in the end, it would be equally sensible to blame it all on the Monty Python's killer rabbit. No, wait, that would actually make more sense.

I was going to give this movie 1 star but I'm giving it 2 so that people wouldn't say that my only goal was to lower the movie's rating. If you're into masochism don't watch this movie. Hurt yourself in a more humane way.

A Perfect Thriller.

[DarkVulcan29 · 8/10 · 19 April 2007]

This movie has a lot of guesses,and it manages to go beyond that, when it comes to a murder mystery. The film starts with Journalist Rowena(Halle Berry) who's best friend is murdered. Rowena remembered the last time they talked, she was sort of involved with Harrison Hill(Bruce Willis) a married business man, who she was hoping to bring down. With the help of her friend Miles(Giovanni Ribisi), Rowena goes undercover in Harrisons company, in hopes to uncover the truth, and flush out a killer. But in a mystery has every twist and turn gets reveled, the one that will shock you the most is what lies in the heart of the matter. Halle Berry and Bruce Willis were great in this surprising good thriller. So was Giovanni Ribisi.

Lackluter thriller with A list stars

[MLDinTN · 6/10 · 24 February 2008]

This is a murder mystery; too bad there wasn't enough suspense or chemistry between the lead actors. Hallie Berry has picked some bad thrillers to be in lately. Berry plays, Ro, a reporter who does some investigating when a child hood friend turns up murdered. The friend had talked to her a week before her death and mentioned how she was having an affair with an ad executive, Harrison Hill. Ro decides to investigate Hill with the help of her computer geek friend, Miles. It turns out Miles is more of a freak than Ro thought. The investigation of Hill is supposed to be thrilling, but it really isn't. There isn't enough suspense. At the end Miles puts it all together and we get a montage of who committed the murder and how. Very sneaky. But not that great of a pay off.

FINAL VERDICT: If you don't see this, you aren't missing anything. There are better movies out there.

The Imperfection of Perfect Stranger **

[edwagreen · 5/10 · 23 February 2008]

Something goes terribly awry in this film.

Bruce Willis seems to have really aged in this film. He could have played the father of Halle Berry. He's ruthless, cunning and a real stinker, but what's really going on with him, if anything.

There is a surprising excellent supporting performance by Giovanni Ribisi. The latter is an up and coming thespian who will be walking down the aisle one day with an Oscar in his hand. Trouble is that his acting talents are wasted here due to the end of this unconvincing plot.

The film starts off well. A reporter has the goods on a gay senator but everything gets dropped due to politics. Angry and embittered, the reporter played by a devilish Halle Berry, resigns but soon finds herself caught up in the murder of a childhood friend. The latter was carrying on an affair with advertising executive Bruce Willis.

You really don't expect Berry to turn out as the culprit. Nothing really led up to this.

Berry really comes off as a monster here. Was she emulating "Monster's Ball?" If so, it sure doesn't work.

Good story and acting, but it sort of cheats the viewer in the end.

[TxMike · 16 November 2007]

Halle Berry is Rowena Price, hot-shot reporter who has been working on a big story. Everything is nailed down, she and her partner have all the evidence, and the front-page expose' is written. But her editor informs her the story will not be published, it is essentially vaporized. Seems that the target has connections to the newspaper and , well, there are certain things wealthy and powerful men do.

Rowena is naturally put off by this, and decides to approach a new target on her own. Bruce Willis is Harrison Hill a wealthy ad agency man, married, but who doesn't seem to take his vows too seriously. His jeopardy is compounded by the fact that his wife has the money position. A young lady turns up murdered, an old friend of Rowena's, and she thinks Harrison did it. A hunch. So helped by her friend Giovanni Ribisi as Miles Haley, they use email and chat rooms to focus in on Harrison. Plus Rowena gets a 'temp' job in Harrison's firm, and eventually starts up a romantic liaison.

Berry, Willis, and Ribisi are all good, but the story in the end cheats the viewer. Don't read my final comments below if you have not yet seen the movie.

SPOILERS, SPOILERS.

As the story unfolds Harrison looks suspicious and we begin to believe he is the murderer. But Miles also acts suspicious, and we find out he was on the other end of the chat pretending to be Harrison so we start to think he might have done it as part of his obsession with Rowena. However, in the end we find in a flashback that the dead young lady had witnessed something when the two were children, something bad, and Rowena had killed to forever silence her after it appeared she was a threat.

Take It For What It's Worth

[rcbbo · 6/10 · 12 April 2007]

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

no edge on your seat thriller but it is definitely not boring

[chrichtonsworld · 6/10 · 2 July 2007]

After reading several negative comments on this site I was very hesitant to watch this movie! I think Halle Berry is very beautiful and also is able to act quite good! With "Gothika" she started the trend to play in bad movies! To be honest I can't blame her! She had the opportunity to be a lead character in some high budget movies. There are not many black actresses around who can say the same! I wouldn't say that "Perfect Stranger" is a top notch thriller! But I thought that Halle Berry was more than decent in this one! She did what could be expected of her! She was convincing as the journalist! Of course the twist was a bit much! But that is the point of the twist isn't it? The twist itself was believable (it could have happened)! Although "Perfect Stranger" isn't fast paced it never gets boring! There aren't many twists and turns and that may be the reason people are disappointed! But I have to disagree with many reviewers to say that this is a bad movie,because it isn't! It may be quite light but what is wrong with that! At least I enjoyed it much better than say "Premonition"! Give this movie a chance!