Review of A Perfect Murder (1998) by Ruhan R — 23 May 2011

A thriller that sounded promising but ultimately turns into a snoozefest. Hitchcock would be remarking at the "clever" references to this movie, but would also be counting sheep in his grave.

A Wall Street exec is married to a socialite lady. She's in an affair with a poor painter. Mr. Wall Street hires the painter to kill her, only all does not go according to plan. This leads to twists and turns.

This movie looks stunning, I give it that. But looks cannot conceal fatal flaws. Gwyneth Paltrow is a perfect example of that statement because she's a dull actress here that it's sure to irritate anyone looking for liveliness. Also, the thrills are lacking, the plot is a "been there-done that" sort of deal with predictable twists/bad writing, and the supporting players are wasted. The alternate ending, honestly, would've fit the movie better than that cop-out exercise in 'boring bitch' sympathy you see in the final cut.

Michael Douglas is always a live wire in these thrillers so the audience won't be surprised that he does a splendid job. Hell, he can do it in his sleep. Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn) ain't bad either. Also worth noting is that the music cues are well-done.

It wasn't meant to be a perfect movie, nor is any movie for that matter. And it could've been really good, with the direction it was gonna take, but what was really the point of remaking "Dial M for Murder"? 52% of the people on here found that point (or sort of made it up as it went along), but I don't see it.