Halle Berry and Bruce Willis have both been in several good movies over the courses of their careers. They have also both been in some movies that were pretty bad. Since I have enjoyed the majority of their movies that I've seen, I tend give their new movies a chance. Berry and Willis recently appeared in Perfect Stranger together.

Rowena was a reporter for a tabloid type of newspaper in New York City. She was furious when a story she’d been working on for six months was stopped at the last minute. Right after learning about the fate of her story, she ran into Grace, an old friend. Grace wanted Rowena to write about Harrison Hill, the owner of a huge advertising agency. Grace had met Harrison online and the two eventually met in real life and had a brief affair. She made plans to move to New York and then she was unable to contact Harrison anymore. A week later, Grace’s body was discovered and there was evidence that it was murder.

Rowena got the idea that Harrison had killed Grace to keep the affair from his wife. She managed to convince her friend Miles, who worked at the same newspaper doing research, that her theory made sense and she got him working on it as well. He managed to set Grace up as a temporary employee at Harrison’s agency. Once there, she learned more about Harrison and his history of affairs before she made her move to get closer to him.

The trailers I had seen for Perfect Stranger made it seem like the movie would be a suspenseful thriller. It wasn’t. There were one or two scenes that had a tiny amount of suspense and that was it. I didn’t think the movie was thrilling. Much of what happened was predictable and even boring. Several scenes seemed to drag on and on, going nowhere. The pace was slow overall, which made the entire movie drag. Every once in a while something happened that would make me briefly think things were going to pick up and make the rest of the movie interesting. Those few things were handled as badly as everything else and it never happened.

Rowena’s investigation into Harrison and what, if any, involvement he had in Grace’s death was the main focus of Perfect Stranger. She was barely introduced before her death, so it was hard to care about her or what had happened to her. It was quickly shown that Grace and Rowena really hadn’t been that close, so it made it somewhat unbelievable that Rowena would go to such lengths to find out what had happened. It was more believable that Rowena was after a big story that could make up for the story that had been pulled at the last minute. Miles’s reasons for getting pulled into the investigation seemed questionable as well, though later it did become clear why he let her pull him in.

Grace’s death did provide a small amount of mystery in Perfect Stranger. It really wasn’t developed that well and much of it worked out very predictably. A few times throughout the movie, Rowena was shown to be haunted by something from her past. There really wasn’t any logical reason for those brief scenes to be included. They only served to make things even more convoluted, especially once more was finally shared about it. Those few short scenes distracted from the mystery surrounding Grace’s death and just seemed to be a waste of time. By the time the truth was shared, I didn’t care anymore. The final resolution came out of nowhere and seemed like it had been added in just to try to shock and surprise the audience. At first it did seem to make some sense, but when I thought about it later, it was full of holes and problems. On top of that, a new problem was created and the movie ended with that not resolved. It was handled very badly.

Before seeing Perfect Stranger, I had heard some publicity related to sex scenes in the movie, specifically between the characters played by Halle Berry and Bruce Willis. I know I heard at least one thing talking about the steamy scenes between those two. There weren’t any sex scenes featuring those two. Instead, they just exchanged a few kisses in one scene that did also involving some roving hands. I really didn’t care about seeing those two in a sex scene anyway and had decided to see the movie only because the trailers made it look interesting. I do feel like false advertising was used concerning steamy sex scenes featuring Berry and Willis. That was probably done as a way to lure more people into seeing the movie.

Early in the movie, Rowena was shown topless from behind while she was getting ready to go out. After that date, she and the man she had been with did have sex. Really all that was shown was some kissing since the camera moved to show something else for most of that sequence. Rowena was a bit vocal during that part. What was shown was in shadows and there wasn’t any nudity. There were some sexual discussions at different times, usually through online chats. At one point, some pictures were shown that featured topless women in sexual positions. That seemed like a cheap attempt to shock and titillate the audience. Several characters, especially Rowena, swore throughout the movie. Rowena used the word that rhymes with luck several times. The movie deserved the R rating and some of the things in it will probably offend some viewers.

Perfect Stranger focused a lot of attention on Grace’s murder. She was a very flat, one-dimensional character since she was shown alive for only a few minutes. All that shared about her was that she’d knowingly had an affair with a married man and was willing to go to his wife when she didn’t get what she wanted. She didn’t seem like that nice of a person, and my opinion of her didn’t change as the more progressed and more was shared about her. She seemed to be a woman that would do anything to get what she wanted. Nicki Aycox really didn’t have much to do since she was barely in the movie.

Rowena was the main character in the movie and the most developed. Even so, she didn’t really receive that much development. She considered herself a serious journalist even though she seemed to work mostly on stories involving scandals that had the potential to ruin lives. She was only concerned with getting her stories published and she didn’t care how they impacted the lives of other people. She used questionable methods when working on stories. She really wasn’t that likable either and I didn’t care much about her. Halle Berry did the best she could with the material for the most part. She did slip into over acting in a few scenes, though it didn’t get as bad as her performance in Catwoman.

Miles worked for the same newspaper as Rowena and he’d worked with her on several stories doing research. He had a lot of hacker skills that he used to help Rowena more than once. He had also known Grace, which had seemed a little convenient to me. It wasn’t a major thing, but it wasn’t explained how he’d met her and I did wonder about that. Miles had his own secrets, mostly related to the true nature of his feelings for someone. Giovanni Ribisi was fine in the part.

Harrison Hill owned a very successful advertising agency. He was married to a beautiful, wealthy woman, but he still had affairs whenever he could. He kept a suite at a fancy hotel that he used for that purpose. He would hit on women that worked for him and he even started relationships with women he met online. Most women around him were more than willing to have sex with him. I failed to see what the great attraction so many women had for him. Bruce Willis was all right in the part. He’s been much better in other movies.

Main Cast

Nicki Aycox - Grace
Halle Berry - Rowena
Giovanni Ribisi - Miles
Bruce Willis - Harrison Hill

James Foley - Director

Perfect Stranger had the potential to be a decent thriller with the good cast and interesting plot idea. Unfortunately, the movie failed to reach that potential in any way and turned into a convoluted mess. Even fans of the cast should avoid this one.

Halle Berry Movie Reviews
Catwoman ~ Die Another Day ~ Gothika ~ Robots ~ X-Men ~ X2: X-Men United ~ X-Men: The Last Stand ~

Bruce Willis Movie Reviews
16 Blocks ~ The Fifth Element ~ Hostage ~ Lucky Number Slevin ~ The Whole Ten Yards ~


Recommended: No