Far from perfect (Perfect Stranger (DVD))

Member Name: missixty

Product:	Perfect Stranger (DVD)
Date:	22/03/08 (74 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Not boring

Disadvantages: Tries to hard and fails to deliver

Grace's body is found dumped in a river after a brutal murder and her old childhood friend Rowena Price, who is a journalist, goes about trying to reveal prime suspect successful business man Harrison Hill (who Grace had been having an affair with) as the murderer.

Halle Berry (Monster's Ball) plays the part of Rowena Price and all in all the acting was okay, there wasn't anything that particularly made me think bad about the acting, although it wasn't anything outstanding. The character itself again was just okay, I didn't hate her or like her, there just wasn't anything in there to make you connect with or care about the character. Bruce Willis (Die Hard) plays prime suspect Harrison Hill and again the acting is fine, although somewhat limited as there isn't really much required of his character. The character itself I thought was a little weak, displaying only either lust or anger at any time. The reason I felt it was weak was it seemed somewhat inaccurate of how I would expect a successful ad executive to act. The other main character was Miles, a friend of Rowena's who has somewhat of a crush on her and is a computer whizz who helps her out whilst she is pursuing Harrison Hill, both in real life, and online. Miles is played by Giovanni Ribisi (Lost In Translation) and his acting and character is probably the strongest of the three. His character is a lot more believable and connects with the viewer a little more than the other two roles.

This film was on offer in Blockbuster, on a four for £10 (yes I know - bargain!) offer, I hadn't heard of it before (which maybe should have been a sign of things to come) but from the blurb on the DVD case it sounded quite good and as it had Halle Berry and Bruce Willis in it I figured it should be okay.

At no point in the film was I bored, it did keep me interested and entertained throughout however the film was definitely lacking in some things, and including too much of others.

What it lacked was good character development. I just didn't really care or connect with the characters, and without a love for the characters, even a great story can fall flat on its face.

What it had too much of were surplus characters and storylines. There were many people introduced into the film, and briefly focussed on here and there, without really ever developing them or their storylines. There was actually very little point in any of them and it felt like a bit of waste of time that could have been better used developing the main characters. The little side story lines attached to some of the characters detracted from the main plot, didn't really add anything to the movie and were never fully explored and again seemed a little pointless and like the time could have been used concentrating on the main aspect of the film and making it a little better.
It felt a little bit like they were trying to get a little to much into the movie. It felt like it was meant to be a complex twist and turn thriller, but in fact you were spoon fed throughout the movie, and not only that but fed too much surplus unimportant information.

It was felt very much like it was made up as they went along with ideas thrown in from all angles, and them just trying to include everything rather than concentrating on making one idea really good.

The way it tried to add mystery was quite annoying cue sentences such as "Well, after it happened...." or "You know because of..." with someone interrupting going "I know!" to stop it being revealed to the viewer. It felt very forced and like they were labouring the point of past mystery, which we could have got much more subtly. There were also things said that were clearly in there to make us go "ahhhh" when we realised what they were about, made even more horrendously clear by the inclusion of flash backs to such lines during the big reveal. It didn't work, it felt patronising and false and just like the film had been trying to be one of these clever thrillers, but missed the mark by several thousand miles.

The film tried to be clever and intriguing and full of mystery and surprise but it just wasn't, or any mystery or surprise that was in there was very anti climatic and just didn't hit the spot.

I by no means hated this film, like I say I was entertained and interested throughout but by the end of it I was left feeling a little, "oh, was that it". It wasn't a memorable film, nor one that I would watch again, it's one of those in a few years I probably won't even remember.

All in all it was an alright watch, if it's on the TV or on a super cheap offer like ours was then by all means its a way of passing the time and a little light entertainment but I can't see it ever being anyone's favourite film. I think most people that have seen it feels a bit "blah" about it, almost not caring enough to hate it or love it.

It was an 'alright' film, nothing more nothing less. It was lightly entertaining but failed to be what it clearly so desperately wanted to be.

Summary: Feels like a made for TV movie