Perfect Stranger
Gino Sassani on September 9th, 2008
Here’s the thing. You’ve got Halle Berry. You’ve got Bruce Willis. How could you go wrong with a combination like that? I don’t know about the women, but the guys are all over this one. We get the cool action star and some nice eye candy. Add to that that both of them have some serious acting chops, and you have yourself a winner. The story has all kinds of potential. It’s a classic whodunit with some clever twists and turns along the way to keep you guessing. What could possibly go wrong. Perfect Stranger, that’s what can go wrong.
Perfect Stranger is the kind of film that is just too clever for its own good. Twists are all well and good, but like any tantalizing spice, too much will surely ruin the best recipe. The film begins innocently enough. We get a strong introduction to Berry’s character, Ro. She’s a tough reporter trying to make her way in a male dominated field. She uses a male byline to keep her readers from dismissing her outright and has become the power name on her paper. We meet her just as she’s about to move in for the kill and take down a pedophile senator for having a fling with an intern. Have I heard that story before? She’s got the goods on him, and at the very last minute amid celebration with copious amounts of booze, her editor kills the story. The powers that be have shut her down, and she quits. On her way home she runs into Grace (Aycox), a childhood friend who has a scoop and an ax to grind. It seems she’s been doing some on-line flirting with Harrison Hill (Willis) that eventually led to some steamy encounters in the real world. Unhappy with him ending the relationship, she threatened to go to his wife. Now she’s scared and wants Ro to look into him because she thinks he’s had someone killed. When Grace also turns up dead, Ro decides to look into Hill. She’s joined by her newspaper partner Miles (Ribisi) who’s something of a computer wiz. She takes a position at Hill’s elite advertisement firm and also attempts to seduce him on-line as yet another person. Hill is always suspicious of corporate espionage and so is no easy target. From here the film is filled with more red herrings than a South Philly fish market. The conclusion might not be all that predictable, but it will not be satisfying either.
Berry and Willis do their best to save this film. They are at their best and portray characters we truly can take an interest in. There is even some clever writing to help us further immerse ourselves into the dark waters of this mystery thriller. Unfortunately for us, these waters run too deep and the writers have pulled away all of the life jackets. By the midpoint of the film, you’re treading water and not in a position to really care anymore. The script merely wastes the credibility it invested so much time to buy with us, only to leave us scratching our heads and wondering what the … is going on here. Ribisi also puts in a very compelling performance that is totally wasted in the film’s finale. The big mystery here is who killed the writing talent halfway through the picture? I suspect that director James Foley killed writer Jon Bokenkamp an hour into the picture, hid his body and replaced him with Brian Kozemenski, Jr.
Video
Perfect Stranger its original aspect ratio of 2.40. This isn’t really a bad transfer as HD films go, but it never really pops for me either. It’s a perfectly respectable AVC/MPEG-4 codec, producing a perfectly fine 1080p image. To be sure the image has a very glossy look with sometimes very vibrant colors. The only trouble is it never looks entirely real to me. There’s a particular richness to some elements in the red spectrum. Detail is fine, but again never really excites. Black levels are also so perfectly average in every way. Certainly there is some shadow detail, but often it’s wasted by the angle of the shots, which of course is no flaw in the transfer itself. The real problem is that the film is shot in such a perfectly mundane way that the picture neither detracts from nor adds to the experience. The lone exception is the open and close credits sequence. It is here that the image is wonderfully sharp with dazzling color and contrast. Of course, it’s a CG sequence. If only the cinematographer showed the same energy and originality as the cast.
Audio
The Dolby Digital TrueHD 5.1 Master Lossless Audio delivers more than the image but continues this theme of average absurdity. I have to say there were moments when Antonio Pinto’s score had an extremely creepy effect on me. The bit rate maintained a solid 4.5 average mbps in this uncompressed audio presentation. Dialog is fine, but I found some of the dialog a bit moody and undynamic. There isn’t any sub to speak of, but I’m not sure it was all that necessary.
Special Features
Virtual Lives – The Making Of Perfect Strangers: Most of the 12 minutes is made up of all of the male actors going on about how good Berry was to look at. So, if you’re not sure how “hot” Berry is, this one’s for you. All in good fun, but this is all a useless love fest.
Final Thoughts
Perfect Stranger begins with a lot of promises that just aren’t kept. It’s the kind of film you begin to comfortably settle into. The characters are compelling, and it seems like there are going to be some interesting plot elements to drive it all. I can’t tell you exactly at what point it will happen, but I promise that somewhere along the line you’re going to get lost, and you’ll hope that the squirrels haven’t eaten that trail of breadcrumbs you left behind. Of course, you’ll survive. You’re perfectly safe. The film is OK, if you “love OK”.
