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15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Gekko grown older? Maybe!, April 10, 2001
For the record, "A Perfect Murder" is a remake of "Dial M for Murder," Alfred Hitchcock's maliciously clever but hopelessly stagebound adaptation of the popular play by Frederick Knott. But it is great deal more fun to view the new movie as a sequel to "Wall Street," with Michael Douglas once again in top form as a ruthlessly manipulative financial whiz. Imagine Gordon Gekko just a few years past his prime as a high-flying corporate raider, with a trophy wife who's just beginning to tarnish, and you'll get the idea. The big difference is, this time, instead of extolling the virtues of greed, Douglas' character is willing to consider the benefits of an even deadlier sin. In "A Perfect Murder," which Andrew Davis ("The Fugitive") has directed from a screenplay by Patrick Smith Kelly, Douglas is Steven Taylor, a Manhattan-based millionaire industrialist who has over-extended himself while playing the international money markets. Worse, he knows that his most prized possession -- Emily (Gwyneth Paltrow), his radiantly beautiful and conspicuously younger wife -- is drifting out of his jealously tight grip. Right from the start, the audience knows that Emily is having an affair with David (Viggo Mortensen), a broodingly hunky artist who invites her to his fashionably seedy downtown loft for afternoon delights. Trouble is, Steven also knows about the affair. This, too, is made clear very early in the story, as Steven and Emily share a drink in their luxurious apartment before attending a gallery opening. Despite all their polite chit-chat, there is an edge of menace in the air. When Steven abruptly suggests that she wear another dress to the occasion, his words have the unmistakable sound of a command. Not surprisingly, Emily does as she's told. At the gallery opening, Steven is effortlessly gracious as his wife introduces him to David, whom she identifies as a casual acquaintance. Of course, he's much more than that -- much more, in fact, than even Emily realizes. After inviting himself to David's loft, Steven reverts to his natural state. He knows that David is an ex-convict who taught himself to paint in prison -- and, more important, has mastered the art of seducing, then robbing, rich women. Sounding very much like a hard-bargaining businessman, Steven wastes little time in making his pitch: He offers David $500,000 to kill Emily. For a few minutes, David rejects the offer. But the money -- coupled with the threat of exposure -- is too tempting to resist. It would be difficult to say more about what happens next without running the risk of spilling some beans. Even if you've already seen Hitchcock's 1954 original, or one of the many revivals of Knott's play, you are in for a few surprises. Davis and Kelly treat "Dial M for Murder" more as a source of inspiration than a classic worthy of replication. They take the play's basic set-up -- the husband concocts a tricky murder scheme that hinges on the placement of a latchkey and the ringing of a telephone -- but go off in a different, far more intriguing direction. Perhaps the most striking difference between Hitchcock's film and Davis' update is the casually amoral cynicism that informs "A Perfect Murder." In the 1954 thriller, the wife's lover was a boyishly buoyant mystery writer, affably played by Robert Cummings, while the wife -- played by Hitchcock's favorite leading lady, Grace Kelly -- was a relatively innocent adulteress who generated sympathy while paying for her sins. Even the cuckolded husband, played by Ray Milland, came across as genial rogue who was motivated by love as much as money. Welcome to the 1990s: In "A Perfect Murder," the lover is a con man with a gift for blackmail, the husband has lust in his heart for his wife's trust fund, and even the wife is a strong believer in enlightened self-interest. You won't feel excessive sympathy for any of these characters as they hatch their plots and counter-plots. In fact, you may think one of them gets off far too easily in the end. But with the lead roles cast so effectively, and the plot twisting so cleverly, you likely will wind up feeling that, unlike Steven, you've gotten your money's worth.
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