Perfect Stranger – DVD Review

Film, Reviews

Available at Amazon.com

Director

James Foley

Cast

Halle Berry……….Rowena Price
Bruce Willis……….Harrison Hill
Giovanni Ribisi……….Miles Haley

The Movie

Ever since she won an Oscar, Halle Berry has not quite achieved the status as one of the best female actors out there. This is what an Oscar win is supposed to lead to. After a supporting role in the X-Men franchise and the title role in perhaps the century’s worst film so far in Catwoman, Berry commands an A-List price but hasn’t had the sort of Oscar-bait film resume since. Add Perfect Stranger on to the list of films since Monster’s Ball she’s done that seems either a gross misuse of her abilities or that the Oscar win was a freak occurrence.

Berry stars as Rowena Price, a reporter for a New York paper covering a story of a more personal nature. Her best friend has been found dead and all the evidence points to an illicit an affair with advertising mogul Harrison Hill (Bruce Willis). Price decides to go undercover at his agency by day and as a cyber-stalker of sorts by night. See, Hill had a lurid affair over the internet and consummated in person with her friend and Rowena decides to go after Hill as two people. The first is as a temp at his agency, the other is an online persona designed to lure Hill’s more lurid online persona out of the shadows. It has all the foundations of a first rate thriller, including an A-list cast, but it has all the subtlety and nuance of a punch to the face.

While there are some thrills and good moments, the film is rather light on both. For a thriller that’s not a good thing. It’s engaging because the cast is good, and is able to illicit the reaction needed, but the film is decidedly lightweight material for a pair of heavyweights like Willis and Berry. This is direct-to-DVD level material, as its light in actual tension. The premise is intriguing and the cast is sound, but the material provided isn’t up to the cast list. Throw in some creative camerawork and some bizarre flashbacks and you have a film that would seemingly be the kind of “outside the box” thriller that works if it had a script up to par. By the time the film ends, with a twist so far out of left field that it’s mind-numbing, there’s a place between boredom and apathy that the film occupies.

In the long run of things, this will be another role of unfulfilled promise for Halle Berry.

A/V QUALITY CONTROL

Presented in a Dolby Digital 5.1 format in a widescreen presentation, complete with 2.40:1 aspect ratio, the film at least looks and sounds good. The DVD takes full format of the Dolby Digital, using the score quite well, and the visual presentation is quite good as well. It’s a film that relies on a lot of solid colors and contrasts and they come through wonderfully.

The EXTRAS

Virtual Lives: The Making of Perfect Stranger is the film’s sole special feature, outside of some Previews. It runs around 12 minutes and is a relatively interesting piece. While it does go into some depth about the film, and there are some candid moments from Berry and other members of the cast, it feels far too short to be the only extra on the disc.

The DVD Lounge’s Ratings for Perfect Stranger
CATEGORY
RATING
(OUT OF 10)
THE MOVIE

4.5
THE VIDEO

8.5
THE AUDIO

8.5
THE EXTRAS

2.5
REPLAY VALUE

1.5
OVERALL
2.5
(NOT AN AVERAGE)