Perfect Stranger (2007)

This is a suspense thriller with the quality of mediocre tv series. Well at least, this was my impression in the first hour or so. Through its normal flow, the movie has already been limping with bad acting, pedestrian directing and haphazard editing of a drab story but the pathetic twist at the end topped it all. Some mystery fans like to guess plot twists from small clues of unfolding events. There's no way one can predict this one which totally turns upside down the whole plot on its head. But make no mistake. This is not a praise for the scriptwriter who apparently got carried away in his attempt to challenge those predictors instead of writing a coherent story. After the final plot which came out of nowhere, nothing you've seen until that time makes sense in this miserable dreck. Avoid it at all cost unless you take pleasure in your intelligence being insulted.

Perfect Stranger (2007): Dir: James Foley / Cast: Halle Berry, Bruce Willis, Giovanni Ribisi, Nicki Aycox, Florencia Lozano: Flawed yet entertaining thriller about identities particularly those over the Internet chat lines. Halle Berry plays a journalist who goes undercover in an attempt to expose an advertising giant whom she believes is responsible for a friend's murder. Director James Foley manages some suspense yet humour comes off as corny. Foley has made such films as The Chamber and The Corrupter. Structure is pure formula with an ending that will either surprise or disappoint. Berry holds her own as a woman fired from her job in the opening when a job goes wrong. From there she applies as a temp in order to reveal someone in criminal activity. Bruce Willis plays Harrison Hill, ad executive who has much to conceal, and he is smart enough to fire Berry when he figures her out. Giovanni Ribisi as a computer geek has an interesting back story of his own. Nicki Aycox appears briefly to introduce Berry to the whole Hill situation but when she is found murdered, it sets off Berry to investigate. More on Aycox is revealed towards the conclusion that brings into fruition much information. Other roles are more on the standard conventions and nothing more. Contrived and manipulative in the Basic Instinct style but thriller fans will not be strangers to it. Score: 5 ½ / 10

One can only wonder why ? If money was really good, then why should loving something good be evil ? One might as well say God is good but loving God is evil, which is blasphemous to say the least. If this remark suggests that being good is irrelevant, inconsequential and immaterial, then why should God have to be good ? and why should you expect him to be so ? and why should you have to try to be like God ? The angry vociferation, "Money is the root of all evil", wrongfully dismissed as a misreading, uttered by one badly bitten and badly burnt by money clearly rings more true and is more trenchant and more poignant than the very same yet subtle insinuation contained in the biblical apophthegm. The fact that you would sooner damn love than damn money, clearly tells me what you secretly love and would rather have, and most certainly cannot do without. Is God so inadequate in himself that he now has to need the use of money to save ? Is God greater than money or is money greater than God ? The actress & scriptwriter of this movie clearly deserve all of your awards, all of your accolades, not to mention all of your material assets as well.

I watched perfect stranger in hopes of a smart thriller, maybe close to(but not like) identity or insomnia. Yet the main premise is so dull and unpromising that not only it bored the stuff out of me, it also made me shout at how dumb the characters were. First of all, Halle Berry's character is supposedly a smart journalist, yet she is definitely computer illiterate. In one scene she had this picture on the screen that her boss isn't supposed to see, and of course he shows up, at the same time the screen somehow freezes. And what does she do instead of turning the screen off? She panics and tries to unplug the cable with her foot. I know scenes like this are supposed to build up tension but come on! In another one she uploads a virus and gets busted by the antivirus software. Instead of shutting the software, she calls giovanni ribisi and this time he(apparently more computer-savvy than her) tells her there is no way past it and they will try later. In any case the movie is so slow paced and so devoid of any actual thrills that you never feel hooked up to it. Even in the end you see what is coming(the other characters somehow fail to do it) and watch the credits dumbfounded and not entertained in any way.