Perfect Strangers

Yeah. Great movie. All about how ugly life is if you don't ever question anything. two nitwits act out the different imperatives of their egos and we have murder and tedium. This movie gets made because Canada, New Zealand and to some extent, Australia, have some kind of post-colonial guilt going on and this has backfired into 'all women directors must get their movies published' However, Hollywood only publishes crap by men so I guess its all even.

This movie Isn't uplifiting, Isn't kind, Isn't beautiful, Isn't clever, Isn't witty.

It has few redeeming qualities except for the wild landscape. Hey! take out the people and the story and this is one HELL of a nature documentary.

If you see this movie and think that it 'shows life as it really is', you need to get out more. And to the person who said it describes the 'dating scene' out there, I say: bollocks.

Oh and the acting wasn't great either.

I was reminded slightly of a current Australian release, 'Japanese story" which is also largely a two-hander, and has lots of time spent in remote locations. And it too has a fairly major plot twist along the way. But comparisons run out there. Rachael Blake is just as fine an actress as Toni Collette, but what she has to do here seems quite ludicrous. I get concerned when people begin to talk to whitegoods, for instance. You might find that at one point you think, where can this film go from here? And I don't think that question is resolved at all. The second half of the film in particular gets more and more bizarre and kooky, and even at the end I think many people would say "huh?'. Sam Neill was OK too, but I can't for the life of me think what possessed him to do this film. As a student film it would be acceptable, but not as a general release.

Saw Perfect Strangers at the Vancouver Film Fest, September 30, 2003. Well made, and thouroughly engaging movie that suprises at many turns. The simple story of a working class woman who goes home from a bar with an interesting stranger becomes first a story of kidnapping but then moves to a more complex story of love, obsession, and fear.

As with many foreign films, Pefect Strangers is not afraid to mix fantasy with reality. And, it helps to have excellent direction, music, and above all acting by the two leads.

I recommend this film if you get a chance to see it, or eventually rent it.

As far as discreet, not noteworthy and surplus to requirements films from 2003 go, Perfect Strangers isn't a bad one. While the film isn't brilliant, or even good really, it's a fair way to spend your time and if you've got ninety minutes free, there's a lot worse things you could be doing with it. Like sticking rusty screwdrivers in your eyes, for example. The film exists in familiar territory, and follows the over-used plot formula of 'man meets woman, takes her home and turns out to be a psycho', but it mixes in elements of other genres and some down right strange ideas, and the result is a somewhat original take on the idea. Of course, most of the originality that is implanted into the plot fails, but you've got to admire a film for at least trying to be original, even if it doesn't completely pull it off. The movie's best moments are when it's doing it's best to be absurd, and it even manages to take on a black comedy feel when the story gets going. Of course, much of it's plotting is illogical or over acted or both; but then again, you could say that's your fault for taking a chance on it.

Sam Neil is the headline star of the movie, and does what he usually does. I don't like Sam Neil, I find him boring and I haven't seen many films that feature a truly convincing performance from him. Quite how he managed to achieve something resembling fame from just plodding around the set of whatever movie he's working on is one of cinema's great mysteries...but as long as he stars in movies that make money, I guess we're just going to have to put up with it. I suppose at least this one didn't make much. Neil is out-performed, out-shined and outcast by Rachael Blake, however, who stars alongside him, and like him, doesn't give a very convincing performance. That just goes to show how easy it is to outshine Sam Neil. Perfect Strangers falls down principally on the whole because of it's plotting. While the film is never actually boring, it starts off slow and just as it's about to pick itself up, it falls down again and after it's done this three or four times, it gets very annoying. Don't be too harsh on that front though, it is only ninety minutes long. I don't really recommend this film, but if you've just rented it and now you're on here wondering what it's like; I can tell that it's o.k.

We have to start by saying the positive parts of the film, which are the very beautiful atmosphere of anxiety that surrounds the whole film and the semi-paranormal stuff that is introduced from half of the film onwards. Now let's talk about the most negative stuff ever, the plot, because the plot, not because it's bad but because it's very complex and the film can't handle its complexity well, resulting really too hasty and stupid in some points, this is because everything happens too fast and the film does not manage well to contextualize the various choices of the characters who on too many occasions seem forced and too irrational so as to distract the viewer's attention from the film to wonder if what he is seeing actually makes sense and is coherent or no.