YNOT at the Movies

Tonight, I went to a pre-screening of "Perfect Stranger" at the San Francisco Centre. The movie opens on Friday, April 13, and it sucks.

The movie opens with the incredibly gorgeous Halle Berry walks into a senator's office to "blackmail" the senator about his love fair with a male intern. I use the word blackmail because there is no other word to describe the purpose she goes to his office posing as somebody else. If I were the reporter, I would run the story on the front page, rather than secretly record the senator's panic plea: "I will do anything for you" after she told him story she will write.

But nevertheless, it's a great opening, so I was hoping it develops this story to uncover the senator's juicy secret. We all love to see hypocritical politicians going down.

Nope. That's about it. The movie starts to explore other's secrets. Halle Berry's (character's) friend is killed. She goes on a mission to investigate the killer, with the help with her computer hacker friend. The target? An ad executive Harrison Hill, played by Bruce Willis, who certainly has a taste for pretty women. How? By posing as a temp in his office, reminds us the office in "The Devil Wears Prada."

That's pretty much I can talk about the plot without giving any spoiler. And that's just the beginning of a whole a lot mess.

The film ostentatiously tries to be complex, but lacks the intelligence. It keeps adding more twists and secrets to the plot, but really has no clear idea what to do with them. The film constantly teases the audience by putting the characters in deep troubled situations, and then what? It turns out the film doesn't know either. So it always finds an easy and inconvincible way to come out of those situations. The film becomes laughable and completely loses its credibility.

Some obvious question I can't even ask because that will require revealing some of the "secrets" which the movie is banked on. Actually, I won't even bother to ask, because the film wouldn't even exist if it has asked the question at the first place.

My rating: 4 out of 10.