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FILM REVIEWS
"A Perfect Murder"
Apollo Leisure Guide
June 5, 1998
Top-notch thrillers are a commodity filmmakers frequently try to produce,
but rarely succeed. It is rare to bring together a plot without holes, a script that
sounds honest, and performances that leave us convinced anything might happen. Too many
thrillers depend on cliché scenes, tired old lines and actors who give us the impression
they don't believe what they're doing any more than we do.
That's why it's such a treat to sit down to A Perfect Murder. Let's completely ignore the
fact that it's a remake of Frederick Knott's Dial M for Murder. The play and 1954 Alfred
Hitchcock film version (with Ray Milland, Grace Kelly and Robert Cummings) both deserve to
stand on their own, as does this entirely modern take on the story.
Steven Taylor (Michael Douglas) is an aggressive New York financier who expects to be
entirely in charge of his life and everything in it. Emily Bradford (Gwyneth Paltrow) is
his bright, intelligent, beautiful and frustrated wife. David Shaw (Viggo Mortensen) is
the man who comes between them.
The web of trouble that begins to envelop these three is complex and changes at an almost
dizzying pace. Each and every plot twist puts the film at risk of losing credibility, but
every single one of them holds together. From minute to minute it is sometimes hard to
know who's really in charge of things, and we sure want to find out.
The plot is so strong, it easily out-shines the performances. Michael Douglas has
long-since perfected the angry urban executive and he does it again here. Gwyneth Paltrow
is convincing as the flawed but well-intentioned Emily.
If you enjoy a good thriller, you will like A Perfect Murder. Perhaps the old story seems
as timely today as it did nearly half a century ago simply because jealousy, greed and
lust are timeless.
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