A Perfect Murder (1998) 1 1/2 stars out of 4. Starring Michael Douglas, Gwyenth Paltrow and Viggo Mortensen
A Perfect Murder is an imperfect movie.
A stylish thriller, loosely based on Dial M for Murder, which was one of Alfred Hitchcock's lesser thrillers of the 1950s, A Perfect Murder is cold and uninvolving.
And while all the intricacies are in place for what could have been an entertaining thriller, scriptwriter Patrick Smith Kelly seems to have forgotten one important ingredient - humanity.
Steven Taylor (Michael Douglas) and his much-younger wife, Emily (Gwyneth Paltrow), are among New York's elite. Money, power, a beautiful home - they have it all.
Emily also has something extra - a lover. David Shaw, a poor artist, is actually a con artist whose specialty is bilking rich women out of their fortunes.
Steven discovers the affair and hires David to murder Emily.
From there, the plot unwinds in a continual charade of double dealings and double crosses.
But it is all so cold and impersonal that the viewer really doesn't give a hoot about who does what to whom. Will Steven's plot succeed? Will Emily realize her husband's duplicity? Who cares.
It's fun to watch, but there is definitely no emotional involvement. Paltrow is lovely, like a chiseled blonde goddess. Douglas is chilling and level-headed.
Viggo Mortensen seems out of his depth as an artist (who, by the way, learned his trade in prison), but comes to life when he reverts to his con man personna.
But even then he remains overshadowed by his two co-stars.
Nor is it ever explained how this starving artist made contact with the patrician Emily, nor how he can afford his spacious loft.
The only glimpse of humanity offered anywhere in the film is from character actor David Suchet as the police detective investigating the Taylors' lives.
Director Andrew Davis, whose best work still remains The Fugitive, keeps the proceedings moving at a leisurely pace. He offers few tricks and a couple of surprises, but nothing earth shaking that would set A Perfect Murder apart from any of a dozen other movies rolling off the studio assembly line.
What this movie needs is a bit of heart, a touch of compassion. Without it, A Perfect Murder is just a sterile outing. It's like going to a museum and looking at the pretty pictures without being able to get close to the artworks.
Bob Bloom is the film critic at the Journal and Courier in Lafayette, Ind. He can be reached by e-mail at bloom@journal-courier.com or at cbloom@iquest.net
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