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Perfect Stranger
Columbia Pictures / Sony Pictures Entertainment


4.4

based on 31 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 21 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

FILM:

MPAA RATING: R for sexual content, nudity, some disturbing violent images and language

Starring Bruce Willis, Halle Berry, Giovanni Ribisi, Gary Dourdan, Clea Lewis, Nicki Aycox, Olja Hrustic, and Patti D'Arbanville

How far would you go to keep a secret? When investigative reporter Rowena Price (Berry) learns that her friend's murder might be connected to powerful ad executive Harrison Hill (Willis), she goes undercover with the help of her associate Miles Hailey (Ribisi). Posing as Katherine, a temp at Hill's agency, and Veronica, a girl Hill flirts with online, Rowena surrounds her prey from all sides, only to discover that she isn't the only one changing identities. The closer we get to learning the truth, the more we understand how far people will go to protect it. (Sony Pictures)

GENRE(S):	Drama \| Suspense/Thriller
WRITTEN BY:	Todd Komarnicki Jon Bokenkamp (story)
DIRECTED BY:	James Foley
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: August 21, 2007 Theatrical: April 13, 2007
RUNNING TIME:	109 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

To see Perfect Stranger is to wish for a more sophisticated vehicle for a film actress this good, but actors -- and audiences -- take what they can get. This is better than most.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

Perfect Stranger is far from Hitchcock, and Berry, although she gets an A for effort, can't do much with the half-baked characterizations.

TV Guide Ken Fox

Todd Komarnicki's screenplay relies heavily on red herrings and a host of suspects (there are more murderers swanning around Hill's sleek offices than there were aboard the Orient Express) to keep audiences distracted from what, in retrospect, is really pretty obvious.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

Cliched, mostly routine and never especially satisfying.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

Instead of heightening the intrigue in this psychological thriller, the labored twists and out-of-leftfield turns will leave audiences more weary than wary.

Miami Herald Carla Meyer

A rarely suspenseful thriller with a twist ending of the worst kind: It takes too much explanation.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

Think you'd be happy watching Berry do little more than look beautiful? Perfect Stranger gives you plenty of opportunity to find out.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Perfect Stranger is one of those movies that two years, or two months, from now, you won't recall having seen. Ostensibly a movie about big secrets, it comes up with few that are worth keeping, or telling.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

It is an acceptable enough thriller, neither the worst you've seen nor the opposite.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

It lacks the rutting nuttiness of "Basic Instinct," even as it recycles much of that film's kiss-or-kill premise.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

The only surprise here is the real star of the show, who turns out to be not Halle Berry, not even Bruce Willis, but a flat computer screen in all its hard-driven glory.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Tasha Robinson

When the left-field ending finally arrives, it explains a lot, including why she's so off-putting and histrionic, but it never really explains why audiences should bother sitting through such a tangled mess.

Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell

Joins the growing list of blandly made erotic thrillers that contain no eroticism, few thrills and fewer likable characters.

Village Voice Scott Foundas

Perfect Stranger derives some novelty value from its colorblind casting and from being the most ludicrously silly Hollywood f----fest since the Willis-starring "Color of Night" (minus that movie's comic self-awareness). But as a thriller, it's so by-the-numbers that it's hardly worth keeping count.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

A movie so inane that it fails to rise to the level of "good trash."

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Perfect Stranger is the Egg MacGuffin of whodunits, a cheesy affair that casts so many baited lures that they tangle each other and don't hook you.

Austin Chronicle Steve Davis

The fishy smell that permeates Perfect Stranger comes from all of the red herrings flopping around this absurdly plotted Hollywood thriller.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

Just another thriller, utterly disposable.

Variety John Anderson

A disorienting cocktail of illogic and hysteria that requires an 11th-hour soliloquy just to explain what's happened.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

The director, as he showed in movies like "After Dark, My Sweet," and "Fear," specializes in conjuring conspiratorial atmospheres in which anxiety and sexual menace hang in the air like a heavy, bitter perfume. Long after you've dismissed the movie's ridiculous, convoluted story, traces of that scent may linger.

The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen

The star wattage quickly dims in this slick-looking but ringingly hollow affair that starts off generically at best before collapsing into a convoluted heap of shrill screen cliches.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Have you ever seen a movie without a single believable moment? Perfect Stranger, a convoluted and altogether risible thriller with Halle Berry and Bruce Willis, manages this difficult feat.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Superficial and lurid, Perfect Stranger is the cinematic equivalent of spam and should, like those trashy messages, be avoided.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

A crappy thriller gussied up with a chrome-plated veneer.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

A dull, dumb and unforgivably dated thriller, free of thrills and any kind of perfection.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

After "Gothika " and "Catwoman ," a viewer has to wonder: Why does this woman keep making thrillers if she can't bring herself to be thrilled?

Time Richard Schickel

The movie's central problem: a lack of alternative suspects...How the screenwriter, Todd Komarnicki, and the director, James Foley, resolve this problem is a genre travesty and an affront to their star.

Empire Dan Jolin

A twist-burdened techno-thriller that would be by-the-numbers if it could count.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

This stupidly contrived thriller is all the more disappointing if you admire previous work by Berry and director James Foley (After Dark, My Sweet).

Film Threat Michael Ferraro

Nothing but a perfect waste of a Friday night. Or a Tuesday night. Or any night of the week for that matter.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Life is full of choices, and Halle Berry has made another bad one with Perfect Stranger, a perfectly off-putting thriller.

The average user rating for this movie is 4.4 (out of 10) based on 21 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Keith J gave it a3:
People who think this is a good movie need to see more movies. Rent or buy Strangers On A Train. It's $9.99 at my local supermarket. You have no idea what you are missing. Watching this movie makes me dumber. The only reason I give it a 3 is Halle Berry. I'd give a 3 if the movie involved nothing but Halle Barry standing in front of a blank background. The plot and writing are pitiful.

Marques H gave it an8:
I was against seeing this movie after reading all the reviews. I'm sorry, the critics are wrong. The plot was excellent, I was on th edge my seat. Halle Berry, Bruce Willis and Giovanni were excellent in this film. Go rent this movie, you will not be disappointed.

[Anonymous] gave it a7:
Perfect Stranger is better than about 2/3 of current Hollywood movies. The plot is fairly complex, the characters are interesting and sufficiently believable, mood is sustained, and the film is fun to watch and even discuss afterward. With so much product out there which insults the viewer, why have critics savaged Perfect Stranger?

Tyler D. gave it a5:
Boring, unoriginal, and ultimately stupid. The less-than-clever twist near the end of the movie didn't help very much, either.

AJ K. gave it an8:
This movie is a good horror movie with a very good story line.

Lisa E. gave it a3:
This is one of the worst movies I've seen in a long time. It had such a weak storyline which didn't really seem to go anywhere. A total waste of time!

Cathy L. gave it a0:
This was slow, dumb and weak. Charactures were unlikable. Holes everywhere. Don't waste your time or money on this film.

Perfect Stranger Columbia Pictures / Sony Pictures Entertainment

Perfect Stranger
Columbia Pictures / Sony Pictures Entertainment