Perfect Stranger
Directed by James Foley
- thriller
- crime
- mystery
The story
A journalist goes undercover to ferret out businessman Harrison Hill as her best friend's killer. Posing as one of his temps, she enters into a game of online cat-and-mouse.
What it’s like
Cool, glossy 2007 digital neon-noir: sleek corporate offices in cold blue-white light, a moody city of rain-slicked streets and night-lit glass towers, and a palette of steel grey, black and sickly blue screen glow. James Foley frames with fairly conventional, polished coverage, with a lot of tight two-shots and screen-reflected faces that make the online chat sequences feel like a second room. The score pulses with synth-tinged tension and the soundtrack leans on sharp electronic stings, so the mood is more slick than textured. Pacing is brisk and twisty, built around escalating reveals and cat-and-mouse exchanges rather than quiet stretches. Tone is tense, sour and voyeuristic: guilt, seduction, a sex-scandal undercurrent and a taunting, psychotic menace that keeps building. Violence is present, including a murder at the core and a rough, sudden climax; sexual content is suggestive and some scenes are frank, and the dread is more pressure than gore. It suits a late-night, alone thriller watch and fans of erotic-tinged mystery who want a nasty, guessing-game pull rather than anything gentle.
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