In the 1990s, Alfred Hitchcock's films were seen as great films, but apparently not great enough for Hollywood studios not to remake them. Together with the shot-by-shot remake of Psycho came the new and more conventional version of Hitchcock's 1954 classic thriller Dial M for Murder. The new version, titled A Perfect Murder, was directed by Andrew Davis.
The protagonist of the film is Steven Taylor (played by Michael Douglas), a cold, calculating and successful New York stockbroker who had his career crowned with the marriage to a young and rich heiress, Emily Braydon (played by Gwyneth Paltrow). Steven, however, hides a nasty little secret behind the facade of business success - he has recently gone into huge debt and desperately needs his wife's cash to rescue himself from bankruptcy. Emily, on the other hand, has a nasty little secret of her own - she tries to fulfil her emotional needs in an extramarital affair with a bohemian artist, David Shaw (played by Viggo Mortensen). When Steven finds out about the affair, he also discovers that David too has a nasty little secret - he is a con man who spent years in prison for working on lonely rich women. Steven uses this information to blackmail David into taking part in his diabolical scheme - in exchange for money and freedom, Steven has to kill Emily. The plan is elaborate, and Steven is supposed to have a perfect alibi. But even such elaborate plans can go terribly wrong, and Steven must improvise to get out of trouble.
Compared with the shot-by-shot remake of Psycho, A Perfect Murder is a daring film with characters and a plot that depart from Hitchcock's original. The main villain is transformed from a charming playboy into a cold, calculating businessman, and that served Michael Douglas well because he can play such characters in his sleep. Viggo Mortensen plays a very different killer from the one in the 1954 version. On the other hand, Gwyneth Paltrow with her aristocratic image looks very much like the modern equivalent of Grace Kelly. Those who watched Dial M for Murder, however, won't be bored. The two films are very different and not only in their respective scripts. Andrew Davis directs this film very well, and James Newton Howard provides a good musical score. Unfortunately, the script starts to sag in the second half. At the beginning, it looks as though the three characters would share the same moral alignment and that their ultimate fate won't be predetermined by Hollywood conventions. Unfortunately, the scriptwriter, Patrick Smith Kelly, succumbs to pressure and turns Emily into a classic film heroine. Instead of a spoiled rich heiress and trophy wife, she is presented as a tough career woman who works for the United Nations. An otherwise pointless scene featuring David Suchet (of Poirot fame) in the role of a detective is inserted into the film just to show how educated and compassionate Emily is. The disappointment is even greater at the very end when the complex web of intrigues gets resolved with a brutal, violent and utterly predictable twist. Because of that, A Perfect Murder, although watchable, represented a waste of great talents and a great opportunity.
RATING: 4/10 (+)
(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.films.reviews on June 23rd 2004)
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