The big rumour about murder mystery Perfect Stranger is that the filmmakers shot three different endings, each offering up a different character as the killer.
It wouldn't have hurt to have shot alternative beginnings and middles, either.
Everyone has blood on his hands in this thing, the writers in particular.
Perfect Stranger is a film about secrets and lies, not to mention overacting and poor casting choices.
Halle Berry stars as Rowena, an investigative news reporter who goes undercover as an office temp to find a killer. Believing that a woman who looks like Berry might be employed in either role is a stretch, but that's where acting skill comes in, which is why believing that a woman who looks like Berry might be employed in either role is a stretch.
Annoyed that the old boys' network gets one of her major stories buried, Rowena quits her newspaper in a huff.Then a childhood friend gets murdered. Rowena and her trusty work sidekick Miles (Giovanni Ribisi) plot to investigate the killing on their own. She passes herself off as an office temp in order to spy on the main murder suspect, advertising honcho Harrison Hill (Bruce Willis). Since he's a womanizer, her plan involves showing cleavage at the office and flirting with him.
The story is complicated by the fact that Rowena, Miles and Harrison Hill also get involved in online chat rooms, a development that leads to many cliffhanger moments of people typing naughty double entendres to one another. And reading them aloud. As they type. In real time.
And then there are many flashbacks to Rowena's youth and her abusive father.
Anyway, there's something suspicious about Rowena's dead childhood friend. There's something suspicious about Miles, too, and there's certainly something suspicious about Harrison Hill (over and above what appears to be a dead gerbil welded to Willis' scalp). Harrison Hill's wife is suspicious. His office manager is suspicious. Rowena's former boyfriend is suspicious. In fact, everyone in the cast goes around with nostrils flared and eyes narrowed. Allergies or murder suspect? You be the judge.
Perfect Stranger makes no sense. (Are you tired of plot twists based on moments of totally out-of-character abject stupidity, or is that just us?)
The storytelling is shoddy, the ending confusing, the red herrings overwhelming and the acting, except for Giovanni Ribisi, is atrocious.
On the plus side, Miss Berry wears great clothes and the music in the movie is often wonderful. Well, when it's not suspicious.
(This film is rated 14-A)
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