Perfect Stranger

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Ralph R Perfect Stranger is one of those movies that tries to be a slick psychological thriller but ends up feeling like a mess of half-baked ideas. The plot starts off with potential, setting up an intriguing mystery, but the execution is all over the place. Instead of building suspense naturally, it throws in forced twists and unnecessary subplots that make the story feel scattered rather than engaging. The script is weak, with awkward dialogue and unnatural character interactions that make it hard to take seriously. The directing and cinematography choices don’t help either. The framing is weird, with tight close-ups that often cut off the tops of actors' heads, making the whole thing visually frustrating. The performances feel underwhelming, especially Bruce Willis, who seems uninterested in the role. Even Halle Berry, who is usually solid, struggles with the material. The film tries to create tension through its score and sound design, but it never really lands. Instead of enhancing the atmosphere, it just highlights how flat everything feels. Overall, Perfect Stranger feels more like a wasted opportunity than a gripping thriller. Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 02/13/25 Full Review Ed V Solid late night throwaway film. Masterfully Schlocky. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/01/25 Full Review Birithivy Y Perfect Stranger - 6/10. This is one of those movies which is flawed but interesting. Interesting because there’s an insane (albeit implausible) twist during the last 15 minutes, and flawed because this movie goes back and forth between being coherent to just throwing ideas at the wall. First things first though: Halle Berry is great! After she won her Oscar, her career surprisingly wasn’t always aimed at straightforward Oscar type roles. She would dabble in the occasional thriller or heightened drama, and this happens to be a psychological thriller. Berry is awesome here, and she’s such a charming star. And I think that’s why you buy into this movie as much as you can before that great insane twist. Her chemistry with Bruce Willis is super fun and great (which really made me wish that this was just a more Fatal Attraction type of tale but with the roles being switched). And honestly speaking, it did feel that way until the last 30 minutes. You think its Willis or Ribisi that will turn out to be the killer or culprit. Well, I won’t give it away for you, but you probably won’t see it coming. The movie is shaky in terms of its presentation. We get these flashes of the past, but they just feel super choppy with the ongoing plot. And its the believability of the events that transpire at the end that makes you frustrated that they didn’t do a proper job of prepping you for the twist (again, they do give you red herring’s, but I feel it isn’t properly executed). We also have 3 movies in here that could’ve easily been followed through to make this movie more effective. It could’ve went the route of the reverse Fatal Attraction. It also could’ve been an investigative thriller ala Zodiac, where Berry is slowly uncovering that the person she’s obsessively investigating about might actually be a cold blooded killer, while also leading her down a dangerous road of psychological draining of the mind. Or, the movie could’ve just followed the weird and somewhat out of place erotic You’ve Got Mail segment (which kinda threw me to the wayside in terms of how random it felt). Either way: this movie was fun for the wrong reasons, and is so overtly bad that it became bad good. That ending somewhat saves this rating from being even lower! Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 12/28/24 Full Review Audience Member Breaks all the rules in the wrong ways. Rated 1.5/5 Stars •  Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 11/14/24 Full Review Clyde K Don't know what all the negative reviews are about. This is a wonderful movie with an unexpected ending - at least for me. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 11/05/24 Full Review Robert S Pretty bad. Got about half way through it, thinking that it might get better, but finally quit watching...don't waste your time! Rated 1/5 Stars •  Rated 1 out of 5 stars 01/08/24 Full Review Read all reviews

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