Perfect Stranger (2007)

(In theaters, April 2007) There are bad dull movies and there are compulsively watchable bad movies. Perfect Stranger falls squarely in the latter category. A mish-mash of ludicrous plot twists, unlikable protagonists (I like looking at Halle Berry, but her acting is like nails on a blackboard), bad technical details, dull eroticism and clumsy direction, Perfect Stranger is nonetheless captivating: the plot mechanics are unaccountably fascinating, and that’s without adding the attraction of watching a cinematic train wreck and wondering how bad this is going to turn out. The final few minutes are a masterpiece of the “let’s screw with the audience” school of thriller plotting. A chaste thrill-free “erotic thriller”, Perfect Stranger still has a magnetism of its own. It’s a bad movie, but I guarantee you won’t be bored.