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Starring Michael Douglas, Gwenyth Paltrow. Released to DVD on October 6, 1998. Occasionally I forget when a film's release date is. Unfortunately for me, A Perfect Murder was one of those films. Unfortunately, because I had just screened Alfred Hitchcock's Dial 'M' For Murder, the movie A Perfect Murder was based on, about two weeks prior to A Perfect Murder's release. Let me suggest a good rule of thumb to follow, be you movie critics, or Blue Cab dispatchers: never, ever, under any circumstances, up to and including large, swarthy men holding AK-47's at your temple, watch an original film a month or two before viewing the remake; the end results will terrify you like watching John Stamos sing on Full House.And thus, while A Perfect Murder was, in fact, a relatively entertaining film, it paled in comparison to the far superior Dial 'M' For Murder. In essence, this would be like watching Citizen Kane and then deciding to take on Weekend at Bernie's 2. Directed by Chicagoan Andrew Davis, A Perfect Murder stars Michael Douglas and Gwenneth Paltrow as a recently married couple (some would suggest that this is quite logical since Paltrow has only been of consenting age for 7 years), with a lack of trust and respect in their union. Despite the fact that they drive Mercedes', have, apparently, hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash in a bank safe deposit box, and live in a penthouse apartment overlooking New York's Central Park, Douglas' commodities business is going belly up, pun intended. Douglas decides the only way out of bankruptcy is to have Paltrow's lover, Viggo Mortensen, murder Paltrow, so that he, Douglas, will be able collect her mammoth trust fund, which he would not have otherwise been able to get his hands on. Please ignore the fact that most husband/wife couples actually pool their money and don't consider themselves as two separate financial entities. Douglas and Mortensen work out a scheme to kill Gwenneth and everything is going fine until Paltrow unexpectedly finds a way to defend herself and kills her would-be killer. Suddenly, Douglas is thrown into a situation that he never saw coming, and is thusly forced to weave and intricate and delicate web of lies to throw suspicion off of himself. There are several surprising twists in Patrick Smith Kelly's debut script, but, as a whole, the on-screen action was rather predictable. The biggest problem with A Perfect Murder though, is the unlikable and, at times, unmotivated characters. Hitchcock realized that in order to increase Dial 'M' For Murder's suspense, his female lead, Grace Kelly had to be genuinely liked by the audience, despite being an unfaithful wife. To gain the audiences sympathy for Kelly, wherever possible, Hitchcock tried to soften the effects of her infidelity by making Kelly's husband cold and unresponsive, and by not putting Kelly's physical intimacies with her lover on-screen. The desired effect was obtained and Hitchcock did bring an extra level of suspense to his film because of it. Davis takes a slightly different direction with A Perfect Murder, choosing to open the film with Paltrow going at it with Viggo, the Italian Stallion, like a large comet was threatening to hit the planet within the hour. My reaction to this was not empathy or understanding, but rather disgust. I figured to counteract this, Davis would attempt to portray Douglas as a beast--it can't be that hard to do--so that the viewer would actually care if Paltrow is killed, but this isn't done either. I suppose hindsight is always 20/20. On it's own two feet, A Perfect Murder is a stylish, entertaining thriller, following the actions of three cold and calculating people, directed by the king of stylish, entertaining thrillers, Andrew Davis, just try not to compare the material to Dial 'M' For Murder. Personally, I'm just glad they didn't update the title to Fax 'M' For Murder, as well.
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