''Perfect Stranger'' is a 2007 American
neo-noir
Neo-noir is a revival of film noir, a genre that had originally flourished during the post-World War II era in the United Statesroughly from 1940 to 1960. The French term, ''film noir'', translates literally to English as "black film", indicating ...
psychological thriller
Psychological thriller is a genre combining the thriller and psychological fiction genres. It is commonly used to describe literature or films that deal with psychological narratives in a thriller or thrilling setting.
In terms of context and co ...
film, directed by
James Foley, and starring
Halle Berry
Halle Maria Berry (; born Maria Halle Berry; August 14, 1966) is an American actress. She began her career as a model and entered several beauty contests, finishing as the first runner-up in the Miss USA pageant and coming in sixth in the Mis ...
and
Bruce Willis
Walter Bruce Willis (born March 19, 1955) is a retired American actor. He achieved fame with a leading role on the comedy-drama series ''Moonlighting'' (1985–1989) and appeared in over a hundred films, gaining recognition as an action hero a ...
in their first film together since ''
The Last Boy Scout
''The Last Boy Scout'' is a 1991 American buddy action comedy film directed by Tony Scott, written by Shane Black, and produced by Joel Silver. The film stars Bruce Willis, Damon Wayans, Chelsea Field, Noble Willingham, Taylor Negron and Daniel ...
'' (1991). It was produced by
Revolution Studios
Revolution Studios Distribution Company, LLC is an American motion picture and television studio headed by Chief Executive Officer Scott Hemming.
The company focuses primarily on the distribution, remake and sequel rights to titles in its librar ...
for
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...
.
Plot
Under the pen name David Shane, reporter Rowena Price investigates a sex scandal involving a senator alongside her researcher Miles Haley. However, the story is shut down when their source becomes silent and Rowena's editor, a supporter of the senator, puts a stop to the story.
While walking home, Rowena meets her childhood friend Grace Clayton, who seeks her help in taking down wealthy advertising executive Harrison Hill. Grace gives Rowena her e-mails as proof of their extramarital affair, which Hill recently ended.
A few days later, Grace is found dead, drowned and poisoned with
belladonna, leading Rowena to suspect Hill. With Miles' help, Rowena goes undercover, as a temporary worker at Harrison's advertising company, H2A. While setting up gift bags for a
Victoria's Secret
Victoria's Secret is an American lingerie, clothing, and beauty retailer known for high visibility marketing and branding, starting with a popular catalog and followed by an annual fashion show with supermodels dubbed Angels. As the largest ret ...
collection launch, she meets fellow advertiser Gina, who reveals that Hill is rich because of his wife, Mia, and if she left him, he would be penniless, causing him to be more secretive with his affairs. Rowena flirts with Hill both online and in real life, but she does not realize that the online Hill is actually Miles, who is secretly in love with her. One evening, Hill catches Rowena snooping, thinks she is a corporate spy, and fires her.
At Miles's apartment, Rowena discovers a shrine to her and explicit pictures of Miles and Grace, before she confronts him. Miles defends himself by providing evidence that Hill had access to belladonna for poisoning. Rowena goes to the police, and Hill is arrested for the murder of Grace.
After Hill's conviction, Miles visits Rowena and reveals that he knows she is the real killer and used the investigation to frame Hill. Rowena then flashes back to a memory of her father attempting to
molest
Sexual abuse or sex abuse, also referred to as molestation, is abusive sexual behavior by one person upon another. It is often perpetrated using force or by taking advantage of another. Molestation often refers to an instance of sexual assau ...
her, and her mother subsequently bludgeoning him to death with a fireplace poker. A younger Grace watches from her window as they bury the body; Grace has been blackmailing Rowena with this information ever since. Miles goes on to describe how Rowena had plotted the murder to end Grace's blackmail and pinned the crime on Hill. Miles asks how she intends to keep him quiet, but Rowena stabs him to death and ransacks the kitchen. She then calls the police, claiming to have been attacked by Miles and that he might have been the real murderer. As Rowena waits for the police, a man looks out of a neighboring window, having witnessed the events.
Cast
Production
Filming
Some of the scenes were filmed in the lobby of the new
7 World Trade Center, before its opening on May 23, 2006.
Release
Marketing
The characters of Grace, Josie, and Mrs. Hill all have blogs dating back to September or October 2006 with
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...
videos of the respective actresses, in character, speaking the text of the entry with minor changes. This was a relatively new form of
viral marketing
Viral marketing is a business strategy that uses existing social networks to promote a product mainly on various social media platforms. Its name refers to how consumers spread information about a product with other people, much in the same way tha ...
similar to an
alternate reality game
An alternate reality game (ARG) is an interactive networked narrative that uses the real world as a platform and employs transmedia storytelling to deliver a story that may be altered by players' ideas or actions.
The form is defined by inten ...
.
Home media
''Perfect Stranger'' was released on August 21, 2007, on
DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...
and
Blu-ray
The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...
.
The film was reissued on Blu-ray on April 4, 2017, by Mill Creek Entertainment. It is included as a 3-pack with ''
Straightheads'' (2007) and ''
Wind Chill'' (2007), the latter two making their US Blu-ray debut.
Reception
Critical response
''Perfect Stranger'' holds an approval rating of 10% on
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
based on 142 reviews, with an average rating of 3.5/10. The site's critics' consensus reads: "Despite the presence of Halle Berry and Bruce Willis, ''Perfect Stranger'' is too convoluted to work, and features a twist ending that's irritating and superfluous. It's a techno-thriller without thrills." On
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, the film holds an aggregated score of 31 out of 100 based on 31 critics, indicating "Generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by
CinemaScore
CinemaScore is a market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts based on the data.
Background
Ed Mintz founded Ci ...
gave the film an average grade of "C+" on an A+ to F scale.
Peter Travers
Peter Joseph Travers (born ) is an American film critic, journalist, and television presenter. He reviews films for ABC News and previously served as a movie critic for ''People'' and ''Rolling Stone''. Travers also hosts the film interview prog ...
of ''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...
'' said, "Foley fights a losing battle with ''Perfect Stranger'', a dull, dumb and unforgivably dated thriller, free of thrills and any kind of perfection, save a genius for product placement" ... "it's a techno thriller that treats the already cliché topic of Web abuse with an idiotic sense of discovery."
References
External links
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Interviews Halle Berry about the filmat HipHopDX.com
{{James Foley
2007 films
2000s mystery thriller films
2007 psychological thriller films
2000s serial killer films
American mystery thriller films
American psychological thriller films
American serial killer films
Columbia Pictures films
2000s English-language films
Films about journalists
Films directed by James Foley
Films set in New York City
Films shot in New York City
American neo-noir films
Revolution Studios films
Films scored by Antônio Pinto
2000s American films