A Perfect Murder Review
by Scott Renshaw (renshaw AT inconnect DOT com)June 7th, 1998
A PERFECT MURDER
(Warner Bros.)
Starring: Michael Douglas, Gwyneth Paltrow, Viggo Mortensen, David Suchet.
Screenplay: Patrick Smith Kelly, based on the play "Dial M For Murder" by Frederick Knott.
Producers: Arnold Kopelson, Anne Kopelson, Christopher Mankiewicz and Peter MacGregor-Scott.
Director: Andrew Davis.
MPAA Rating: R (profanity, sexual situations, violence)
Running Time: 110 minutes.
Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.
You'll be seeing ads for A PERFECT MURDER trumpeting "from the director of THE FUGITIVE," which should set off a few alarms. If you're inclined to do the math, you'll note that THE FUGITIVE came out five years ago, and you might reasonably wonder what Mr. Davis has been up to in the interrim. The answer is two films Warner Bros. is hoping everyone has long forgotten: the bloated, laughless caper comedy STEAL BIG, STEAL LITTLE and the bloated, lifeless action film CHAIN REACTION. Those films too were advertised as "from the director of THE FUGITIVE," only the director of THE FUGITIVE never showed up. Could Davis finally display the film-making skill which once held viewers on the edge of their seats, but seems to have been in hibernation for half a decade?
I'm pleased to note that Davis directs A PERFECT MURDER with much more of the style and savvy which characterized THE FUGITIVE. Too bad the script is such a mess. The film is based on Frederick Knott's play "Dial M for Murder," previously made in 1954 by a fellow named Hitchcock. This version casts Michael Douglas as Steven Taylor, a wealthy New York commodities broker with a lovely young wife named Emily (Gwyneth Paltrow). Though she's a highly-educated diplomat with the United Nations, Emily is treated like a trophy by Steven, leading her to seek fulfillment in an affair with starving artist David Shaw (Viggo Mortensen). Unfortunately, Steven learns of the affair, and has the natural husband's reaction of wanting to kill somebody. His approach, however, is somewhat unusual: he offers David half a million dollars to kill Emily.
Thus begin the expected twists, turns and double-deals, with the three main characters regularly exchanging the upper hand. All three roles are well-cast and well-played -- Paltrow as the smart but vulnerable ingenue, Mortensen as the sexy but dangerous "other man," and Douglas as the calculating, morally shady businessman in the manner he should have a patent on by now. Douglas in particular gives the material a welcome edge, pitching tart dialogue with a superior sneer and making it supremely satisfying to watch his plans go awry. Davis' production team, including production designer Philip Rosenberg and cinematographer Dariusz Wolski, creates an appropriately gothic atmosphere to complement tautly-directed individual sequences. All these elements are crafted by Davis into a satisfying package likely to keep you intrigued as long as your watching.
Watch out for the drive home, though, when the whole thing may fall apart in your head so fast you'll lose sight of the road. On the one hand, A PERFECT MURDER contains as many metaphorically unfired guns as any film in the history of post-Chekhovian drama. Why doesn't it matter that Emily is multi-lingual? Why is one character left conspicuously wounded-but-not-necessarily-dead, never to appear again? Why does a sharp-witted homicide detective (the talented David Suchet, in a magnetic but under-used performance) play virtually no role in the investigation? On the other hand, it underlines some of its key plot points so blatantly (INSERT LINGERING CLOSE-UP OF MEAT THERMOMETER HERE) that it's more than vaguely insulting, then drops key clues into the narrative from out of nowhere. Add to that a story which dumps intellectual gamesmanship for struggles over a gun, and it's no wonder the film went back before the cameras for 11th-hour re-shoots of its final scenes. Writer Patrick Smith Kelly makes a lot of changes from DIAL M FOR MURDER, but he doesn't make much sense.
I suppose it's a credit to how much Davis does right that A PERFECT MURDER still pushes plenty of the right buttons until the anti-climactic climax. If a director is lucky, he gets a good script he can make even better with stylistic choices. On other occasions, the best he can do is apply makeup to all the blemishes. Between the film's mood and its solid performances, A PERFECT MURDER is about as strong a film as you can make from such feeble material. It may not be redemption for "the director of THE FUGITIVE," but it sure is a step in the right direction.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 murders he wrote: 5.
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