| Devious Thrills
Abound in Hitchcock Remake By Rene Rodriguez The Miami Herald June 5, 1998 |
 |
The Michael Douglas Fan Page
FILM REVIEWS
| Devious Thrills
Abound in Hitchcock Remake By Rene Rodriguez The Miami Herald June 5, 1998 |
|
1954's Dial M For Murder was as close to
formulaic suspense as Alfred Hitchcock ever
got. The movie, which the director made to
fulfill a contractual obligation, was based on a
popular Broadway play by Frederick Knott
about a man who plotted to have his wife killed
after he suspected her of having an affair.
Most of the film took place inside the couple's
apartment, which gave it an unintentionally
turgid feel. Aside from the movie's central
setpiece (an elaborately staged murder
revolving around a phone call), Hitchcock
seemed to be coasting. Neither the gimmickry
of 3-D photography nor the radiant presence of
a young Grace Kelly was enough to keep Dial M
For Murder from being forgotten soon after it
was made.
All of which makes it an ideal candidate for a
remake. With A Perfect Murder, director
Andrew Davis (The Fugitive) and screenwriter
Patrick Smith Kelly take the original premise of
Knott's play and spin off in new, more
fashionably cynical directions. In this version
(which preserves little except for the phone
murder setpiece), no one is completely
innocent, the body count is higher, and
telephones come complete with handy redial
buttons.
Michael Douglas stars as Steven Taylor, a
powerful investment banker whose most prized
possession is his beautiful (and much younger)
wife Emily (Gwyneth Paltrow): He doesn't
exactly love her, but he loves to own her. (The
fact that she's even wealthier than he is
doesn't hurt.)
When he discovers Emily has been carrying on
with penniless artist David Shaw (played
snakily by Viggo Mortensen), Steven offers
David $500,000 to kill his wife. David, whose
background is a lot shadier than Emily
suspects, agrees. The two men work out a
foolproof plan to make it look like Emily was
killed after surprising a burglar in their posh
apartment.
What ensues is an enjoyably devious thriller
about cunning and duplicity that, if not any
more memorable than the original, is at least
lively and energetic. The main attraction is
Douglas in full-bore prince-of-darkness mode,
mining the seductive charm of a character
whose heart is so black you'd swear he had oil
for blood ("I've always thought 'bludgeon' has a
spur-of-the-moment sound to it," he tells David
while discussing how to make Emily's murder
seem unplanned).
Much as Douglas did in Fatal Attraction,
Paltrow manages to retain the audience's
sympathies while playing an adulterer (it helps
that Steven is such a creep; they're so
mismatched, you wonder why she ever married
him in the first place). Later, when Emily
becomes the victim of the piece, Paltrow's
delicate frame and angelic looks are a perfect
match for the character.
Despite its extensive facelift, A Perfect
Murder's stage roots still show. The twists in
the plot feel a bit mechanical at times,
particularly in the film's climax, which
underwent some last-minute tinkering (and
seems a tad too convenient). But compared to
most other recent Hollywood thrillers (like Wild
Things), A Perfect Murder seems like a marvel
of construction. Hitchcock would have
approved.
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