| "A Perfect Murder," but Far from a Perfect Movie By Julie Hinds San Jose Mercury News Wednesday, June 3, 1998 |
 |
The Michael Douglas Fan Page
FILM REVIEWS
| "A Perfect Murder," but Far from a Perfect Movie By Julie Hinds San Jose Mercury News Wednesday, June 3, 1998 |
|
ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S
"Dial M for Murder," one of the master's minor efforts, is best known for its
faddish 3-D effects and Grace Kelly's suspenseful lesson in why it's not a good idea to
wrestle with sharp objects.
Nothing quite that memorable comes out of "A Perfect Murder," a routine thriller
loosely adapted from the play that sparked the 1954 movie. Go only if you're itching to
see how another flawless crime gets foiled.
Directed by Andrew Davis ("The Fugitive") and written by newcomer Patrick Smith
Kelly, the movie follows a murderous trap laid by a high-stakes commodities dealer
(Michael Douglas) with a crumbling portfolio. He wants to save his fortune by offing his
much younger wife (Gwyneth Paltrow), an heiress with a $100 million trust fund and a lack
of common sense when it comes to prenuptial agreements.
Paltrow makes it easy for Douglas. She's having a steamy affair with a sexy painter (Viggo
Mortensen), who seems devoted to her but who's actually a con man with a habit of
relieving women of their fortunes. Faster than you can say double-cross, Douglas offers
his wife's lover a hefty sum to kill her.
Will something go wrong with the careful plan? Suffice it to say that Davis packs the
movie with the kind of high-tech and low-brow surprises that audiences have come to
expect. For example, there's a not-so-tricky bit with a cell phone that shows how
important satellites have become to today's scripts.
The problem is the lack of the unexpected. From the moment Douglas' handsomely decaying
reptile face appears, it's clear that he's going to do a variation on his successful dude
with domestic problems. No wonder much of the mayhem takes place in the kitchen. That's
where the rabbits are usually boiled in Michael Douglas movies.
Paltrow, too, is predictably lustrous and endangered. It's too perfect that a trophy wife
this golden -- she's beautiful, rich and a top-level United Nations aide -- would wind up
with Gordon Gekko.
The devious lover could have been diverting. But with his smoldering manner and his big
cleft chin, Mortensen is too close to a younger version of Douglas to be an interesting
foil.
As for David Suchet, an actor familiar as PBS's Inspector Poirot, his Arab-American
detective is around mostly so Paltrow's character can show off her multilingualism.
"A Perfect Murder" isn't very involving, but it is a slick and racy look at
upper-crust living. When we first see Douglas and Paltrow in their Central Park condo,
he's wearing a black formal suit with a white vest and tie. She's changing for the
evening, which gives us a peek at her in a white shirt and black thigh-high stockings. As
Hitch might have said, ha-cha-cha!
Their life is so sheltered and well appointed that the movie's only unmanufactured chill
occurs when Paltrow, trying to figure out who's after her, tracks down a clue in a bad
neighborhood. An upper East Sider in a tenement building? That's guaranteed goose bumps.
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