Perfect Stranger

Release date: April 13, 2007
Directed by: James Foley
Starring: Halle Berry, Bruce Willis, Giovanni Ribisi

Without a doubt, Halle Berry is one of the most celebrated actresses of our time. The only problem is that ever since she won the Oscar, her movies have tanked critically. Similarly, Bruce Willis' career has lately been hit and miss. The premise behind Perfect Stranger promised a great psychological thriller, but its poorly written script fails the film.

Berry plays Ro, a high-powered journalist who's worked hard to establish herself as a scoop breaker. When one of her stories is pulled due to potential ramifications and a perceived lack of respect from "the man," Ro decides she's had enough and quits. Soon after, a friend is murdered. Convinced that advertising mogul Harrison Hill (Willis) is the killer, Ro finagles her way into a temp position at his company. With the aid of friend and IT wiz Miles (Ribisi), she attempts to avenge her friend's death by trying to find out how Hill, an online dating philanderer, committed the crime. Also, as Ro is trying to solve her friend's murder, she's also trying to "find herself."

While journalists have been known to solve a crime or two, Perfect Stranger loses its way as Ro morphs into a full-on detective with an astute sense of timing. Always in the right place at the right time, her uncanny ability to access Hill's mysterious online world of freaky sexual fetishes comes a little too easy — is she a reporter or a member of NYPD Blue?

Other than Ribisi, who convincingly plays an alluringly creepy third wheel, Berry and Willis' characters are ill written. Willis is supposed to be a villain, and bad guys are supposed to be compelling because of their psychotic outbursts, but he comes off as very one-dimensional and, at times, boring. Further, most people agree that Berry is a good actress, and beautiful (repeated close-ups of her backside are a healthy reminder of such), but in this role it's never quite clear why her character is so troubled.

Perfect Stranger has moments of heightened intrigue, especially during the online chat room scenes, but there aren't enough of these moments to overcome the film's more obvious shortcomings. Although the ending is a bit unpredictable, it comes a little too late to pull it all together.