June 5, 1998
The New York Times
By STEPHEN HOLDEN


You don't have to believe a word of the strained dialogue in
"A Perfect Murder" to be seduced by the movie's chilly high-
gloss ambiance and its skillfully plotted update of Frederick
Knott's play (and Alfred Hitchcock's film) "Dial M For Murder."

One vicarious fantasy the movie gratifies is inhabiting a jaw-
droppingly elegant Fifth Avenue apartment with a spectacular
spiral staircase and a glorious view of Central Park. (And the
movie lets you wallow around in the place just long enough so
you begin to feel at home.) Another is that the truly rich who
can afford such grandeur must be truly dissatisfied. (Their
good fortune would be unbearable otherwise.) Steven and Emily
Taylor, the attractive childless couple who live in this palace,
fit the bill perfectly.

As the movie opens, Emily (Gwyneth Paltrow) is cavorting in bed
with a handsome young painter named David Shaw (Viggo Mortensen)
in his Brooklyn warehouse loft. Little does she know that her
lover is a ruthless con man and gigolo operating under a false
name who has spent many years in prison. Nor is she aware that
her husband (Michael Douglas), a shady Wall Street bond
salesman, is about to lose his shirt as one of his Asian schemes
goes bust. Even worse, her husband has discovered her clandestine
affair and compiled a devastating dossier on David that he is
planning to use against them both at the appropriate moment.

Steven could be the Gordon Gekko of "Wall Street" a decade later.
The thrill of the chase has drained away, and all that's left is
a panicked psychopathic acquisitiveness. Douglas, who with each
film looks more like a wattled, riled-up rooster, makes Steven a
pleasure to loathe. When he approaches David with a cash offer of
$500,000 to murder his wife (Emily is independently wealthy, and
the Taylors have no prenuptial agreement) and make it look as
though she were slain by an intruder, Steven descends from
villain into monster.

To describe any more of the plot, which departs significantly
from its source, would be to give too much away. But the story
has enough nasty twists and tantalizing clues for its ingenious
mechanics to remain engaging. Where the 1954 version starring
Ray Milland, Grace Kelly and Robert Cummings had the clunky
feeling of a filmed play, this update, directed by Andrew Davis
from a screenplay by Patrick Smith Kelly, is much more fluent
and sensuous. Its vision of late-'90s Manhattan as a luxurious
shark tank filled with chic cold fish is quite similar to the
picture of the city drawn by "The Devil's Advocate."

Ultimately, the sleekness of "A Perfect Murder" can't conceal
the fact that its characters are stick figures in an elaborate
three-way game featuring two cats and one very wiley mouse. Of
the three, Ms. Paltrow's Emily is the most problematic. Although
the movie halfheartedly tries to portray her as a damsel in
distress, that effort doesn't wash.

This resourceful late-90's career woman, who works as a
translator at the United Nations, is no helpless blushing victim
of male skulduggery. She may not be quite as cunning as her
husband, but she is just as deceitful. And Ms. Paltrow, whose
air is far too worldly for her to be a convincing ingenue, gives
her character a crisp professional edge.

Pursuing her suspicions of a murder plot against her, Emily
fearlessly ventures into a seamier section of Brooklyn where she
charms a sinister drug dealer by using her linguistic skills.
When seeking privileged information about her husband's financial
status, she knows exactly where to go and whom to talk to.

Mortensen has the movie's richest role as the duplicitous painter
who is coerced into agreeing to murder his lover. In the scenes
in which he is supposed to appear sympathetic, he insinuates
enough surliness to give his character a disquieting undertone of
potential violence. But once David has been established as a rat,
the actor shows flashes of pained regret for having to kill a
woman he half loves.

Money, money, money. The creepiest aspect of "A Perfect Murder"
is that there really is no contest between love and money. The
movie is right in tune with the icy Darwinian mood fostered by
the booming late-90's economy. In a climate like this, the hottest
sex in the world doesn't stand a chance against the possibility of
raking in a quick half-million.


PRODUCTION NOTES

A PERFECT MURDER


Rating: "A Perfect Murder" is rated R (Under 17 requires
accompanying parent or adult guardian). It has sexual situations,
strong language and a gory murder sequence.

Directed by Andrew Davis; written by Patrick Smith Kelly, based
on the play "Dial M For Murder" by Frederick Knott; director of
photography, Dariusz Wolski; edited by Dennis Virkler; music by
James Newton Howard; production designer, Philip Rosenberg;
produced by Arnold Kopelson, Anne Kopelson, Christopher
Mankiewicz and Peter MacGregor-Scott; released by Warner
Brothers.
Running time: 105 minutes. This film is rated R.

Cast: Michael Douglas (Steven Taylor), Gwyneth Paltrow (Emily
Bradford Taylor), Viggo Mortensen (David Shaw), David Suchet
(Mohamed Karaman), Sarita Choudhury (Raquel Martinez) and
Michael Moran (Bobby Fain).