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Perfect Murder, A
Mixed or average reviews
Based on 22 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 1 votes
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Suspense/Thriller
Written by:
Patrick Smith Kelly
Frederick Knott (play)
Directed by: Andrew Davis
Release Date:
Theatrical: June 5, 1998
DVD: February 4, 2003
Running Time: 107 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: R for violence, sexuality and language
Starring Michael Douglas, Gwyneth Paltrow, Viggo Mortensen, David Suchet, Sarita Choudhury, Michael P. Moran, Novella Nelson, and Constance Towers
A powerful husband. An unfaithful wife. A jealous lover. All of them have a motive. Each of them has a plan. (Warner Bros.)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Collateral Damage Holes The Fugitive The Guardian
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
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...
New York Magazine David Denby
Andrew Davis, the director of "The Fugitive," one of the best thrillers of recent years, has added pace and heat and explicit sexuality to the material without whipping up phony excitement.
Read Full Review >Slate David Edelstein
It has been sexed up, opened out, and finished off with a disappointing bang-bang climax, but it's still good fun.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
I think it works like a nasty little machine to keep us involved and disturbed; my attention never strayed, and one of the elements I liked was the way Paltrow's character isn't sentimentalized.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Stephen Holden
The story has enough nasty twists and tantalizing clues for its ingenious mechanics to remain engaging.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
I've seen far worse thrillers than A Perfect Murder, but the movie is ultimately more competent than pleasurable.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey
By the head-scratching dénouement, the "perfect" in the title seems particularly misplaced. How about Dial M for Muddle.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Sandra Contreras
If the roller-coaster plot twists lose you, there's always the satisfaction of Douglas's take on a script rife with amusing double entendres.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
A Perfect Murder begins better than it ends, and the pleasures it offers turn out to be more of a transitory nature.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Hollis Chacona
Tasteful, chilly, and polite, it is foul play at its traditional best: Anglo-Saxon, urban, and upper class.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
A Perfect Murder is more like a handful of anemic ice cubes floating in a lukewarm puddle.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
This is simply efficient, routine storytelling with a high gloss but an undernourished sense of character.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan
The unsatisfying thriller A Perfect Murder is a triumph of style over substance, with style in this case winning only by default.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
There's nothing about this thriller to prevent it from soon becoming enmeshed in the memory with others in which Michael Douglas wears a starched collar and grits his teeth.
Read Full Review >Variety Leonard Klady
The dilemma in this Perfect Murder is its singular failure at creating a rooting interest for a character or situation.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps
Andrew Davis ("The Fugitive," "Steal Big Steal Little") has made a technically competent thriller that's not only thrill-less, but dull.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Anthony Miele
This film once again proves that Hollywood has apparently run out of original ideas and is forced to remake another classic film and, like most Hollywood remakes -- big surprise -- it SUCKS.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Rita Kempley
The trouble is, we don't really much care about this philandering billionaire glamour puss, who seems perfectly capable of taking care of herself. We don't care about her husband or lover either.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
A Perfect Murder has inexplicably managed to eliminate almost everything that was worthwhile about "Dial M for Murder," leaving behind the nearly-unwatchable wreckage of a would-be '90s thriller.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
What the film lacks is suspense, surprise (the new ending is a dud) and passion.
Read Full Review >Dallas Observer Jean Oppenheimer
The picture's biggest problem is that no one is sympathetic.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Examiner Barbara Shulgasser
I HATE to whine, but if Michael Douglas is half as tired of playing yuppie scum as I am of watching him do it, then he must be napping on a regular basis by now.
Read Full Review >Newsweek David Ansen
All the surprises strenuously cooked up by screenwriter Patrick Smith Kelly and director Andrew ("The Fugitive") Davis can't overcome the movie's inability to make us care about any of its paper-thin characters.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 5.0 (out of 10) based on 1 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Pat C. gave it a 5:
Douglas's greatest talent seems to be playing confrontations with his nemeses. Mortensen made for a unique dude-on-the-side. As for Paltrow, we can't tell whether she's bored with Douglas or herself. As a whodunit it's intriguing and has the odd surprise, but it wasn't a perfect murder - too many survivors.
