A Perfect Murder (1998)

2 out of 4

Starring: Michael Douglas, Gwyneth Paltrow, Viggo Mortensen

Director: Andrew Davis

Time: 107 mins

Hollywood loves doing remakes. Together with sequels and film versions of TV shows, remakes represent a combination of the dearth of original ideas and the profit-driven motives of corporate Tinseltown. Why make an original film when one can recycle it from some other source?

A Perfect Murder is a remake, of sorts, of Alfred Hitchcock's "Dial M for Murder", which itself was adapted from the Frederick Knott play. Michael Douglas plays a cold corporate executive who discovers his heiress wife (Paltrow) is having an affair and hires someone to kill her. The twist is that the person he hires is her lover, an opportunistic artist played by Mortensen. This distinction could have led to an interesting and different film, but sadly the script is lacklustre and the suspense almost non-existent. The joy of Hitchcock's film was not so much in the cleverly choreographed murder sequence (which A Perfect Murder mimics), but in the subsequent investigation which pointed to Ray Milland's (playing the husband) involvement. A Perfect Murder, in a perfunctory sort of way, ditches the investigation altogether, instead focusing on Paltrow's gradual realisation of the truth and, in a bow to 1990s audiences' average intelligence, throws in an "action" finale that seems rather out of character.

The acting is uneven. Michael Douglas portrays his usual business executive type (have you ever seen him in a recent film without a suit or tie??), with a touch of the cold, world-weariness lifted from his characters in "The Game" and "Wall Street". He does it well, but then, what did you expect when he's played a suit so often before? Paltrow is less successful. She's graceful and elegant a la Grace Kelly in Dial M, but she lacks the emotional range to evoke our sympathy. Worst is Mortensen. Hardly recognisable from his role as the drill sergeant in "G.I. Jane", he mumbles a lot in this film and at times is unintelligible.

Andrew Davis has done some good work before, notably in "The Fugitive". However, A Perfect Murder shows that there are really only a few directors today who can deliver genuine suspense. In short, if you want to see a good murder/mystery, watch "Dial M for Murder".

(c) Joe Wong