Movie Review: 'Perfect Stranger'

Cast your mind back to 2001's electrifying performance from Halle Berry in Monster's Ball that lead to the first ever Oscar for an African-American female. If it seems a distant memory to you then imagine how the actress feels because she has built on this deserved success with Catwoman , Gothika , and arguably the worst Bond movie ever Die Another Day .

If it's any comfort to Berry then in Perfect Stranger she's in the company of Bruce Willis, Giovanni Ribisi and director James Foley, who should hang their heads in shame for making the most unthrilling thriller in recent memory.

For what it's worth the plot is about hiding secrets, a notion that reporter Rowena Price (Berry) builds her very life on by uncovering scandals for the paper with the assistance of geeky associate Miles (Ribisi). The line between professional and personal is blurred when her childhood friend, who was having an affair with powerful advertising executive Harrison Hill (Willis), turns up murdered. To get close to the truth she must also get close to Hill. Sounds exciting? It's not!

On this showing it's hard to imagine that director Foley was the man responsible for bringing David Mamet's superb Glengarry Glen Ross to the screen in 1992. An inventive "Fincher-esque" opening shot aside, the remainder of the film is a sterile bore that relies on random characters as story catalysts to pop up, spout exposition, and then disappear, all leading towards a ridiculous denouement twist that will have you laughing towards the exits.

The cast are uniformly bad. Berry's ineptitude is matched by Willis' "I'm cashing a pay cheque" performance, and the lack of chemistry between them helps to neutralise any of the required tension.

As a child you are told not to go near strangers; as a movie-going adult you should continue to live by that adage and never go near a Perfect Stranger . Awful.

* (One star out of five)