← Back to Reviews
in
A Perfect Murder
Some solid performances notwithstanding, 1998's A Perfect Murder is an overheated and overdirected re-thinking of Hitchcock's Dial M For Murder that provides a lot for the viewer to stay invested in, but interest wanes due to sledgehammer direction that takes away any pretense of what Hitchcock was a master at...suspense.
Michael Douglas stars as Steven Taylor, a wealthy Wall Street wizard who, on the surface has a perfect life, including a glamorous trophy wife named Emily (Gwyneth Paltrow), a trust fund baby who works for the UN. When it comes to light that Emily is having an affair with an artist named David Shaw (Viggo Mortensen), instead of eliminating his rival, Taylor persuades David to murder his duplicitous wife, dangling the carrot of her huge trust fund in front of him, but the murder does not goes as planned and Steven's is not the only plan that begins to unravel.
Director Andrew Davis, who fared much better five years earlier directing Harrison Ford in The Fugitive, mounts this story with such obvious and labored direction that offers no suspense or imagination. Davis leaves nothing to chance in this story, crafting in often annoying detail every single aspect of this story, employing such a sledgehammer approach to the story that no surprises are found along the journey and no work is required from the viewer at all. Even the detective arriving at the scene of the murder seems to have figured out the entire thing the first moment we see him. The only thing Davis makes us do is tolerate the deadly pacing employed in his direction that makes an hour and 45 minute movie seem four hours long.
Davis does know how to create an appealing cinematic package. The film is beautifully photographed and first rate production values are employed, though a couple to the film's detriment. James Newton Howard's overbearing and headache-inducing music grated on the nerves as one of Davis' most essential tools in his spoon feeding of this story.
On the plus side, I found Michael Douglas' effectively underplayed Steven Gold quite entertaining and Viggo Mortensen was properly smarmy as the artist/lover/blackmailer. Gwyneth Paltrow fails to convince as the adulterous wife, but my personal feelings about Paltrow as an actress may have colored my feelings about her work. There's nothing wrong with the idea of remaking Dial M For Murder, but I had to wonder if even Frederick Knott would have recognized what was going on here.
Some solid performances notwithstanding, 1998's A Perfect Murder is an overheated and overdirected re-thinking of Hitchcock's Dial M For Murder that provides a lot for the viewer to stay invested in, but interest wanes due to sledgehammer direction that takes away any pretense of what Hitchcock was a master at...suspense.
Michael Douglas stars as Steven Taylor, a wealthy Wall Street wizard who, on the surface has a perfect life, including a glamorous trophy wife named Emily (Gwyneth Paltrow), a trust fund baby who works for the UN. When it comes to light that Emily is having an affair with an artist named David Shaw (Viggo Mortensen), instead of eliminating his rival, Taylor persuades David to murder his duplicitous wife, dangling the carrot of her huge trust fund in front of him, but the murder does not goes as planned and Steven's is not the only plan that begins to unravel.
Director Andrew Davis, who fared much better five years earlier directing Harrison Ford in The Fugitive, mounts this story with such obvious and labored direction that offers no suspense or imagination. Davis leaves nothing to chance in this story, crafting in often annoying detail every single aspect of this story, employing such a sledgehammer approach to the story that no surprises are found along the journey and no work is required from the viewer at all. Even the detective arriving at the scene of the murder seems to have figured out the entire thing the first moment we see him. The only thing Davis makes us do is tolerate the deadly pacing employed in his direction that makes an hour and 45 minute movie seem four hours long.
Davis does know how to create an appealing cinematic package. The film is beautifully photographed and first rate production values are employed, though a couple to the film's detriment. James Newton Howard's overbearing and headache-inducing music grated on the nerves as one of Davis' most essential tools in his spoon feeding of this story.
On the plus side, I found Michael Douglas' effectively underplayed Steven Gold quite entertaining and Viggo Mortensen was properly smarmy as the artist/lover/blackmailer. Gwyneth Paltrow fails to convince as the adulterous wife, but my personal feelings about Paltrow as an actress may have colored my feelings about her work. There's nothing wrong with the idea of remaking Dial M For Murder, but I had to wonder if even Frederick Knott would have recognized what was going on here.