“Everyone has secrets and will go to extraordinary lengths to keep them private. In James Foley’s new psychological thriller Perfect Stranger, in theaters April 13, a woman bent on solving her friend’s murder dives deep into the world of online dating and scandal.”
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Everyone has secrets and will go to extraordinary lengths to keep them private.

In James Foley’s new psychological thriller Perfect Stranger, in theaters April 13, a woman bent on solving her friend’s murder dives deep into the world of online dating and scandal. She’s doing it to find out whose secrets lead to a murderer.

Halle Berry stars as Ro, a reporter in downtown Manhattan who has just lost the scandal of the decade to governmental red tape. Down on her luck and slightly more than intoxicated, Ro stumbles upon Grace, a friend from the past, who has controversial information on the most powerful ad executive in New York.

Grace had been cavorting with Harrison Hill (Bruce Willis) on an online dating site when their relationship began to spin out of control. When Hill’s wife became the wiser, the relationship was cut short, but not before Grace’s life was threatened. Grace entrusts Ro with exposing Hill and his perverted online pastime.

When Grace turns up dead, the search is on for the killer. With the help of her friend and partner in crime, Miles Haley (Giovanni Ribisi), Ro enters Hill’s agency as a temp, hoping to catch him in his own game. Ro then joins the online dating service with the intent of seducing Hill from that angle as well.

With her suspect surrounded, the heat is on. But as Ro becomes emerged in this world of deceit and passion, she finds that everyone around her has dark secrets.

Secrets they would do anything to protect.

Have you heard that before? You probably have. There is nothing new or innovative with this movie’s plot or scripting. Foley has brought to the screen a mediocre thriller that just happens to lack the thrill.

The film skips along with the fluidity of a Seinfeld episode, trying to cover several different plotlines with no smooth transition between scenes. Within the first half hour of the film, you realize you’ve just been exposed to about 20 fragmented storylines you hope will converge into one, but never do.

Never fear, for Foley seems to panic around 20 minutes from the finale and begins throwing in every cliched plot twist in the book, hoping to shock the audience into thinking they just witnessed a masterpiece.

This discombobulated attempt at alternate endings (they actually filmed three separate endings) felt more drawn-out and over-dramatic than Peter Jackson’s never-ending Lord of the Rings: Return of the King.

Berry gives a particularly dismal performance, one or two steps up from Catwoman (yes, I just went there). As a bi-polar hormonally imbalanced female, Berry manages her emotions in a poorer fashion than Kate Moss off her cocaine. She rants and raves, screams and cries her way through this muddled concoction of suspense and melodrama.

Willis provides no solace as he plays an ad exec in need of some anger management, lashing out at the most awkward moments. He plays his paranoid CEO off as John McClane meets Jeffery Goines (Twelve Monkeys). But really, who can argue with the guy from Die Hard?

Ribisi provides perhaps the finest performance, able to make the girls swoon with his boyish charm and naive goofiness. But Ribisi also shows a darker side, as the secrets he holds make the most callous heart cringe.

He shows a great range of ability and displays more emotion and power in his eyes and body language than the rest of the actors show with their cheesy dialogue and overacted obsessions and paranoia.

Perhaps this movie, a great letdown, should remain a secret. That is, until the dollar theater or DVD, anyway.

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