PLANET SICK-BOY: http://www.sick-boy.com
More than adequately suspenseful, A Perfect Murder one-ups its predecessor with a bigger and better cast and a boatload of twists and turns. Based on the Frederick Knott play, which spawned the Hitchcock thriller Dial ‘M' for Murder, the modernization is a glowing exception of a remake surpassing its original in terms of sheer entertainment value.
Michael Douglas (The Game) stars as Steven Taylor, a seemingly successful New York businessman married to trophy wife, Emily (Paltrow, Sliding Doors), a United Nations employee. They live in a swank pad overlooking Central Park, but that don't mean they're happy – he's is secretly going broke and she's boffing an angry long-haired artist named David Shaw (Mortensen, G.I. Jane).
Not being a dumb guy, Steven quickly finds out about the affair and confronts David with a strange proposition – murder Emily for $500,000. Why does Steven want his wife dead? Turns out she's worth millions and needs the cash to keep his business afloat. Why would David kill the fuck-bunny that he's been more than eager to use for a sperm receptacle? He's really a gold digger who has already been convicted twice and faces the deadly `three strikes – you're out' law if charged again. In fear of being caught for his previous scam in Florida, David agrees to take $100,000 up front and the balance on receipt of the dead babe.
While Steven has the entire murder planned out, things quickly spin out of control. By the time you realize that something is afoul, it becomes impossible to tell who's trying to con who into what. I've seen the original and I was on the edge of my seat. OK – slumped down on the edge of my seat. But you get the point.
Douglas is wonderful as the savvy equal to Gordon Gecko, although he is flawed in different ways and much angrier and much scarier (I think). He's the only guy that I can think of that can win the support of the audience by trying to kill his wife. Paltrow is, well, nice eye-candy. She's perfect as a leggy May to Douglas' December and even spends time in a subway and elevator ala Sliding Doors.
The ugly duckling of the threesome is Viggo Mortensen, who's pretty boy looks make him more of a candidate for Melrose Place than the big screen. His chin dimple is a huge distraction, rivaling only Harry Hamlin in terms of size and depth. I spent too much time trying to think of funny things to jam in there – a tennis ball, a rubber chicken, Sandy Duncan's glass eye. In certain light, Mortensen strikes a disturbing resemblance to Douglas.
The real heroes of the film are, as always, behind the scenes. Cinematographer Dariusz Wolski (The Crow) keeps everything dark but bathes the leads in a warm overhead light. The score, composed by James Newton Howard (E.R.), is both eerie and precarious, and the direction (Andrew Davis, The Fugitive – no stranger to making really old guys look good) adds a classy touch to the mix.
Yeah, it's not The Spanish Prisoner, but that's like comparing apples and oranges. Or maybe apples and orange Jello.
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews