Murder not a perfect anything
A Perfect Murder A Film Review By Michael Redman Copyright 1998 By Michael Redman
*1/2 (out of ****)
In times of crisis people are driven to desperate measures. Of course what constitutes a crisis differs from person to person. What may be a disastrous situation for one, may be seen as a challenge to another. As Deepak Chopra is known to say, "It's not the ride, it's the rider." Unfortunately clear-thinking is not always the reaction to problems.
Wall Street wheeler dealer Steven Taylor (Michael Douglas) is a man with troubles. He's sunk his money in illegal financial activities and it's blown up in his face. In a matter of days he will lose it all.
His wife Emily (Gwyneth Paltrow) is a highly-placed UN interpreter and is not happy with her life either. Her marriage is cold and unfulfilling. Unknown to her, her new lover David Shaw (Viggo Mortensen) is not only a painter, but an ex-con with a history of bilking wealthy women of their money. Emily is a prime target: she's worth over $100 million.
Steven's solution to his predicament is to offer David half a million to kill his wife. The artist accepts and the movie is underway.
Drawing from Frederick Knott's play and loosely based on Hitchcock's Dial M For Murder, this is all-too typical of summer releases. All style and no substance. And there's really not much style. Director Andrew Davis (the accomplished Witness and best-forgotten other films) has made exactly the wrong choices at almost every turn.
Douglas and Paltrow have both shown us that they are skillful actors in previous films. Mortensen showed promise in the past. Here all three are walking uninterestingly through their roles with oddly waxen faces. The only person who shows any sense of life is David Suchet as New York Detective Mohamed Karaman. He's only on-screen long enough to make you think that there might be a likable person in the film and then he disappears.
The first concern of a suspense film is to create suspense. Surprises are important. In this movie the audience keeps waiting for something to happen. And nothing ever does. Nearly every event is telegraphed in advance. Close-up on this object or that action and it's easy to guess what's going to happen. As the film plods towards its inevitable conclusion you keep expecting a plot twist to make the movie worthwhile. It's a hopeless quest.
The story doesn't make much sense. Steven's wife is loaded. Even with unfriendly relations, you'd think that he could have talked to her about his difficulty rather than deciding to kill her. When he does decide on the dire plan he makes an unreasonable choice. If you were going to hire someone to kill your wife, would your first choice be her lover? No matter how sleazy he is, I would think there might be a chance that he would turn down the opportunity. Why would Steven plan the murder as a break-in in their apartment? Why not just take her out as she was walking to David's loft in a bad neighborhood?
While deciding among the numerous summer films, you might do well to skip this one. You'll find more suspense than this movie offers by watching the Weather Channel.
[This appeared in the 6/18/98 "Bloomington Voice", Bloomington, Indiana. Michael Redman can be contacted at redman@bvoice.com] -- mailto:redman@bvoice.com This week's film review at http://www.bvoice.com/ Film reviews archive at http://us.imdb.com/M/reviews_by?Michael%20Redman
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