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Special Features
- Virtual Lives: The Making of Perfect Stranger
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Perfect Stranger is saved from conventional starlet-in-distress mediocrity by a certain refreshing unwholesomeness, a tawdry strain that runs all the way through its climactic series of kickers. Halle Berry plays a "gotcha" reporter, currently undercover to nail a famous advertising tycoon (Bruce Willis)--not for a story, but because Berry thinks he might be involved in a friend's murder. The distasteful nature of Berry trying to seduce the married exec adds some spice, and so does her pervy assistant (Giovanni Ribisi), whose voyeuristic tendencies indicate more than customary comic relief--at the least, he's a hefty red herring. There are other red herrings, mostly beginning to smell, in the rather ramshackle script. Director James Foley, who has a talent for hothouse intensity (Glengarry Glen Ross, At Close Range) gives this material more edge than it probably deserves, although he can't make Berry convincing, and she and Ribisi are completely wrong as simpatico best friends. Willis looks good by comparison, turning a one-note role into a subtle act of professionalism. --Robert Horton
Product Description
When her friend’s affair with married ad exec Harrison Hill (Bruce Willis) ends in the woman’s murder, investigative reporter Rowena Price (Academy Award® winner Halle Berry; Best Actress, Monster’s Ball, 2001) vows to bring the killer to justice. Suspecting Hill of the crime, she goes undercover by posing as two highly alluring women: Katherine, a sexy temp who works within his agency, and Veronica, a seductive temptress he chats up online. Engaging in a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse, both Rowena and Hill begin to realize things may not be what they seem. For some people will go to great lengths to protect their secrets, even if it means risking everything.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
36 of 45 people found the following review helpful
In the movie Perfect Stranger Halle Berry plays Rowena, a journalist dedicated to uncovering greed and corruption among people in positions of power (read: rich, white men) with the help of her tech-savvy partner in crime, Miles (Giovanni Ribisi). She writes under the name of David Shane, perhaps in an effort to give her stories more clout among those she seeks to bring to justice. Rowena is partying in a bar with Miles, celebrating the success of her latest story, a senator who has a penchant for sleeping with his male interns, when her boss comes in to tell her that the story is being shut down by the bigwigs at her paper. Rowena quits her job in a huff and runs out of the bar, only to be followed by a friend from her past, Grace.
Grace seems to know all about Rowena's secret identity as David Shane, and hands Rowena a story that will help her rebuild her career and show the men at her paper that she really is a great journalist. Grace is involved with Harrison Hill (Bruce Willis), the owner of the largest advertising agency in New York, H2A. Grace met Hill in an Internet chat room and became sexually involved with him. Hill, a married man, breaks off their affair in due time, but Grace refuses to go away quietly. She wants Hill exposed as a cheater and a liar and she wants Rowena to do the exposing. Rowena takes Grace's evidence, but doesn't agree to do the story. When Grace turns up dead a week later, Rowena finally decides to investigate. She infiltrates H2A, with Miles's help, and poses as a temp to get closer to Hill. She wants to find out if he's the man behind Grace's death, but she doesn't suspect she might begin to fall for him in the interim...
Coming from a person who likes bad movies and revels in the trash that Oscar winners go on to star in (eg, Catwoman, Aeon Flux), Perfect Stranger is virtually unwatchable. For starters, there's the director's penchant for extreme close-ups. And I mean extreme. At one point, I could see the inside of Bruce Willis's nostrils. Then, there's the newsboy cap that Halle Berry runs around in for most of the film, which I guess is meant to convince us that she's really a journalist. Also, we have Berry's gratuitous sex scenes with the hottie from CSI, which in no way add to the plot or continuity of the movie, but I guess if men don't get to hear Halle Berry talking dirty they won't feel they've gotten their money's worth. And let me not forget the fact that Halle Berry takes on a distinct lisp when she says the F-word (seriously, every single time it sounds like she might spit on someone), and she says it quite a few times over the course of the film. Finally, there was the end-of-the-movie voice-over wrap up, which I just cannot tolerate. You know what I mean (think Wild Things), when the movie's ending doesn't make any sense so instead a voice-over tells you all the clues you were supposed to have seen but didn't, so that the real story can be uncovered. It's a cop out and sloppy story-telling, and put the finishing touches on an already crappy film.
There were 100 other things wrong with this movie that I might have been able to forgive if it had aired on Lifetime instead of in a movie theater. I laughed out loud more times than I can count, and this movie is billed as a "psychological thriller," not a comedy. Take my advice and rent Wild Things or Gothika or heck, even Glitter, and you'll be guaranteed to have a better time than wasting $8 to see this drivel.
Grace seems to know all about Rowena's secret identity as David Shane, and hands Rowena a story that will help her rebuild her career and show the men at her paper that she really is a great journalist. Grace is involved with Harrison Hill (Bruce Willis), the owner of the largest advertising agency in New York, H2A. Grace met Hill in an Internet chat room and became sexually involved with him. Hill, a married man, breaks off their affair in due time, but Grace refuses to go away quietly. She wants Hill exposed as a cheater and a liar and she wants Rowena to do the exposing. Rowena takes Grace's evidence, but doesn't agree to do the story. When Grace turns up dead a week later, Rowena finally decides to investigate. She infiltrates H2A, with Miles's help, and poses as a temp to get closer to Hill. She wants to find out if he's the man behind Grace's death, but she doesn't suspect she might begin to fall for him in the interim...
Coming from a person who likes bad movies and revels in the trash that Oscar winners go on to star in (eg, Catwoman, Aeon Flux), Perfect Stranger is virtually unwatchable. For starters, there's the director's penchant for extreme close-ups. And I mean extreme. At one point, I could see the inside of Bruce Willis's nostrils. Then, there's the newsboy cap that Halle Berry runs around in for most of the film, which I guess is meant to convince us that she's really a journalist. Also, we have Berry's gratuitous sex scenes with the hottie from CSI, which in no way add to the plot or continuity of the movie, but I guess if men don't get to hear Halle Berry talking dirty they won't feel they've gotten their money's worth. And let me not forget the fact that Halle Berry takes on a distinct lisp when she says the F-word (seriously, every single time it sounds like she might spit on someone), and she says it quite a few times over the course of the film. Finally, there was the end-of-the-movie voice-over wrap up, which I just cannot tolerate. You know what I mean (think Wild Things), when the movie's ending doesn't make any sense so instead a voice-over tells you all the clues you were supposed to have seen but didn't, so that the real story can be uncovered. It's a cop out and sloppy story-telling, and put the finishing touches on an already crappy film.
There were 100 other things wrong with this movie that I might have been able to forgive if it had aired on Lifetime instead of in a movie theater. I laughed out loud more times than I can count, and this movie is billed as a "psychological thriller," not a comedy. Take my advice and rent Wild Things or Gothika or heck, even Glitter, and you'll be guaranteed to have a better time than wasting $8 to see this drivel.
23 of 29 people found the following review helpful
By C. Crockett
Format:DVD
This movie really has a lot going for it. Great actors, an interesting and unique premise, just the right amount of excitement, and a halfway decent twist at the end!
"Perfect Strangers" takes audiences on a thrilling journey as one woman fights to uncover the truth behind the murder of a childhood friend. After evidence suggests Rowena's ex-friend, Grace, was murdered by a millionaire married man she had met on the internet, Rowena goes undercover at Harrison Hill's ad agency to try to gather enough evidence to put him away. With the help of her technologically savvy friend, Rowena begins an illicit online affair with the target of her investigation -- but as usual, things are not always what they seem...
I really enjoyed this film. It held my attention, and kept me interested. A couple times I thought I had figured out the twist, but I was pleasantly surprised to discover I was wrong (don't worry, I won't give anything away!). Interestingly enough, they actually filmed 3 different endings -- each one with a different person as the killer. I'm satisfied with the ending they chose, but it would have been nice to see the other 2 alternate endings in the form of a special feature. Sadly, the only special features available on this disc are a "making of" featurette, and a couple trailers. I would have really liked to see more special features.
As thrillers go, I think this is a solid film. Bruce Willis's character was a little stoic and one-dimensional, but in a quiet, creepy sort of way (which overall works to the benefit of the movie). Halle Berry is beautiful as ever, and even though I'm not sure the chemistry between Ms. Berry and Mr. Willis was exactly electric, I think they did what they could with the material, and played off each other fairly well.
One of the things I liked most about this movie was that it was very adult. More and more often, studios are watering down the material to obtain a PG-13 rating in the hopes of appealing to a wider (i.e. old and young) audience. This movie is rated R, and it's not afraid to show it. There's sex, violence, and language -- but it also doesn't rely too heavily on disgusting gore to get it's point across (although, admittedly, there are a few disturbing images -- but again, it doesn't overdo it too much).
Bottom line, don't miss out. I think you might be as pleasantly surprised as I was! 4 stars all the way.
"Perfect Strangers" takes audiences on a thrilling journey as one woman fights to uncover the truth behind the murder of a childhood friend. After evidence suggests Rowena's ex-friend, Grace, was murdered by a millionaire married man she had met on the internet, Rowena goes undercover at Harrison Hill's ad agency to try to gather enough evidence to put him away. With the help of her technologically savvy friend, Rowena begins an illicit online affair with the target of her investigation -- but as usual, things are not always what they seem...
I really enjoyed this film. It held my attention, and kept me interested. A couple times I thought I had figured out the twist, but I was pleasantly surprised to discover I was wrong (don't worry, I won't give anything away!). Interestingly enough, they actually filmed 3 different endings -- each one with a different person as the killer. I'm satisfied with the ending they chose, but it would have been nice to see the other 2 alternate endings in the form of a special feature. Sadly, the only special features available on this disc are a "making of" featurette, and a couple trailers. I would have really liked to see more special features.
As thrillers go, I think this is a solid film. Bruce Willis's character was a little stoic and one-dimensional, but in a quiet, creepy sort of way (which overall works to the benefit of the movie). Halle Berry is beautiful as ever, and even though I'm not sure the chemistry between Ms. Berry and Mr. Willis was exactly electric, I think they did what they could with the material, and played off each other fairly well.
One of the things I liked most about this movie was that it was very adult. More and more often, studios are watering down the material to obtain a PG-13 rating in the hopes of appealing to a wider (i.e. old and young) audience. This movie is rated R, and it's not afraid to show it. There's sex, violence, and language -- but it also doesn't rely too heavily on disgusting gore to get it's point across (although, admittedly, there are a few disturbing images -- but again, it doesn't overdo it too much).
Bottom line, don't miss out. I think you might be as pleasantly surprised as I was! 4 stars all the way.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Is hacking computers really this easy?
In Perfect Strangers, Giovanni Ribisi can hack employee files from a high powered New York advertising agency with ease, and manipulate AOL accounts with about three strokes of his keyboard. So I guess that's why he has enough time to build a kinky photo shrine to Halle Berry in a secret back closet in his lime green apartment.
Which sounds fun. But this movie takes itself too seriously.
***SPOILERS***
Basically, Halle Berry's character is a b!tch. She's an investigative reporter. And uses her colleague (Ribisi) as her pu$$y whipped intelligence expert. He's (not so secretly) in love/lust with her. Which creates some decent tension. He's believable. And Berry exploits his obsession. She's quite the domme, ordering him to hack files and fetch coroner's reports. But every time he fulfills her demands, she gets irritated and plays a mind game, mentally beating him into submission (which he seems to get off on.)
The plot...
really doesn't matter. Halle goes undercover as a temp at Bruce Willis' ad agency. One of her duties is stuffing pink gift bags for a Victoria's Secret event. She's really sloppy, getting the bags and delicate tissue paper on top all wrinkled. And thank goodness the office gossip is helping her. This colleague gives Berry a rundown on the entire office, including who the boss (Willis) has been sleeping with. For an esteemed investigative reporter, Berry seems to get all her info handed to her on a silver platter.
Not that any of this starts to add up to anything.
***THE REAL SPOILERS***
Much later in the movie, thru flashbacks, you learn that Berry was molested by her father (or possibly stepfather), a white man. Her black mother finds out, and kills the man with a fireplace poker. Berry and her mother bury him in their backyard. And Berry's friend witnesses it from her window.
Near the beginning of the movie, the friend, who has grown up to be a trashy Melanie Griffith prostitute/drug addict/swinger type, tells Berry she's been sleeping with the married Willis. And that he's a kinky SOB. Then the friend is found murdered.
So the movie is all about finding out who killed the friend.
Is it:
WILLIS (motive: didn't want his wife to know about affair)
WILLIS' WIFE (motive: jealousy)
RIBISI (had secret s/m sex with the victim)
BERRY'S BLACK BOYFRIEND (had impregnated the victim three months earlier)
But no. HALLE BERRY DID IT!
Why?
Because she was afraid the friend would tell everyone about Berry and her mom burying the father in the backyard.
This all could have been a fun plot. But the movie doesn't take it far enough. And it denies us scenes. With all the build up between Berry and Willis, they should have had a sex scene together. A playing out of the father/daughter dom/sub thing. They hinted that Willis, the powerful businessman, liked to be dominated in the bedroom.
In one of her flashback/dreams, from the child Berry's point of view, she imagines her molesting father to be Willis. They really could have played this up. Her subtext could have been that she sees Willis (and all men) as molesters. Which is why it was easy for her to set up the innocent Willis for the murder rap. And why it was easy for her to stab and kill Ribisi at the end when he discovered Berry was the murderer.
There's also a tall, severely beautiful woman who plays Willis' assistant. I kept mistaking her for Milla Jovovich. Her character is a lesbian. Her primary function is to make sure Willis doesn't have affairs with women in the office. So you'd expect a great catty scene with her and Berry. But it never happens.
Oh, and there's a scene where Willis picks up Berry to take her to work. And remember, he thinks she's just a temp. But her apartment building looks like the Waldorf Astoria. But it didn't raise any red flags for the shrewd Willis. Weird, huh?
I would definitely watch a sequel. A lower budget, direct-to-video production. But who would replace Berry? Tyra Banks? Vivica Fox? Or better yet, a no-name actress with a lot of spunk. And a director with no shame.
In Perfect Strangers, Giovanni Ribisi can hack employee files from a high powered New York advertising agency with ease, and manipulate AOL accounts with about three strokes of his keyboard. So I guess that's why he has enough time to build a kinky photo shrine to Halle Berry in a secret back closet in his lime green apartment.
Which sounds fun. But this movie takes itself too seriously.
***SPOILERS***
Basically, Halle Berry's character is a b!tch. She's an investigative reporter. And uses her colleague (Ribisi) as her pu$$y whipped intelligence expert. He's (not so secretly) in love/lust with her. Which creates some decent tension. He's believable. And Berry exploits his obsession. She's quite the domme, ordering him to hack files and fetch coroner's reports. But every time he fulfills her demands, she gets irritated and plays a mind game, mentally beating him into submission (which he seems to get off on.)
The plot...
really doesn't matter. Halle goes undercover as a temp at Bruce Willis' ad agency. One of her duties is stuffing pink gift bags for a Victoria's Secret event. She's really sloppy, getting the bags and delicate tissue paper on top all wrinkled. And thank goodness the office gossip is helping her. This colleague gives Berry a rundown on the entire office, including who the boss (Willis) has been sleeping with. For an esteemed investigative reporter, Berry seems to get all her info handed to her on a silver platter.
Not that any of this starts to add up to anything.
***THE REAL SPOILERS***
Much later in the movie, thru flashbacks, you learn that Berry was molested by her father (or possibly stepfather), a white man. Her black mother finds out, and kills the man with a fireplace poker. Berry and her mother bury him in their backyard. And Berry's friend witnesses it from her window.
Near the beginning of the movie, the friend, who has grown up to be a trashy Melanie Griffith prostitute/drug addict/swinger type, tells Berry she's been sleeping with the married Willis. And that he's a kinky SOB. Then the friend is found murdered.
So the movie is all about finding out who killed the friend.
Is it:
WILLIS (motive: didn't want his wife to know about affair)
WILLIS' WIFE (motive: jealousy)
RIBISI (had secret s/m sex with the victim)
BERRY'S BLACK BOYFRIEND (had impregnated the victim three months earlier)
But no. HALLE BERRY DID IT!
Why?
Because she was afraid the friend would tell everyone about Berry and her mom burying the father in the backyard.
This all could have been a fun plot. But the movie doesn't take it far enough. And it denies us scenes. With all the build up between Berry and Willis, they should have had a sex scene together. A playing out of the father/daughter dom/sub thing. They hinted that Willis, the powerful businessman, liked to be dominated in the bedroom.
In one of her flashback/dreams, from the child Berry's point of view, she imagines her molesting father to be Willis. They really could have played this up. Her subtext could have been that she sees Willis (and all men) as molesters. Which is why it was easy for her to set up the innocent Willis for the murder rap. And why it was easy for her to stab and kill Ribisi at the end when he discovered Berry was the murderer.
There's also a tall, severely beautiful woman who plays Willis' assistant. I kept mistaking her for Milla Jovovich. Her character is a lesbian. Her primary function is to make sure Willis doesn't have affairs with women in the office. So you'd expect a great catty scene with her and Berry. But it never happens.
Oh, and there's a scene where Willis picks up Berry to take her to work. And remember, he thinks she's just a temp. But her apartment building looks like the Waldorf Astoria. But it didn't raise any red flags for the shrewd Willis. Weird, huh?
I would definitely watch a sequel. A lower budget, direct-to-video production. But who would replace Berry? Tyra Banks? Vivica Fox? Or better yet, a no-name actress with a lot of spunk. And a director with no shame.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bruce Willis<3
I love Bruce Willis and Halle Berry ain't so bad herself. I even like that little weaselly guy... Ben Foster? I think so... anyway good movie. Not a bad thriller.
Published 1 month ago by Dr. McBadass
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good, intense movie
You will love this all the way up to the end and then you will be shocked beyond belief, I promise.
Published 4 months ago by Patricia
1.0 out of 5 stars
so bad
well; I am not gonna waist my time and mind explaining why this movie is a trash, because it does not worth the effort, I am just gonna say it is ................................ Read more
Published 4 months ago by H. from Metuchen
3.0 out of 5 stars
Sexual Justice
"Perfect Stranger," starring Halle Berry & Giovanni Ribisi ("Flight of the Phoenix," "Saving Private Ryan") has been universally panned by critics and customers alike, presumably... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Daly Mavorneen
2.0 out of 5 stars
Bad Movie
After her friend is murdered, journalist Holly Berry, with the help of a friend, goes underground, working for Bruce Willis who she believes is the murderer. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Calamity Jane
4.0 out of 5 stars
well done murder mystery thriller
Considering how mixed the reviews were, I didn't know what to expect of this movie. But it is a solid murder mystery. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Gary Odom
3.0 out of 5 stars
Lacks a Good Guy
James Foley directed "The Corrupter" with Chow Yun-Fat. I liked that a lot; and a video cassette copy is still lurking on my bookshelf. Read more
Published 21 months ago by Lee Armstrong
1.0 out of 5 stars
An Utterly Mediocre Thriller
This film opens in an interesting manner. Halle Berry is a reporter going to interview a U.S. Senator. We see on his door that he is a Republican from New York. Read more
Published on April 24, 2011 by Gary P. Cohen
3.0 out of 5 stars
the uninvited
"Perfect Stranger" is not the type of movie that I would normally watch. Since Bruce was in it though I had to see it because I consider him to be the preeminent actor of this... Read more
Published on September 18, 2010 by JGC
4.0 out of 5 stars
Banal and poorly thought
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. Read more
Published on April 24, 2010 by Jacques COULARDEAU
