Perfect Stranger
Rowena (Halle Berry) - who goes by Row the whole movie - works at a newspaper and is working on a story about a senator (whos going to run for President). She shows up at his office pretending to be from an American Family magazine, only to surprise the senator with gay pictures of him and his former assistant. His assistant went to the paper with the pictures and the story. The senator gets really upset and throws her out.Miles (Giovanni Ribisi) is her co-worker, a computer genius and a friend. Theyve both been working on the senator story for a long time and really want it to make front-page news. They take it to their editor and he says it will be on the front-page the next day. They go out to a fancy dinner to celebrate.At dinner its obvious theyve known each other a long time. They flirt but its obvious Miles likes Row as more than a friend. She doesnt seem to notice. They have several glasses of wine and end up fairly tipsy. Suddenly their editor sits down across from them. He says that the senators assistant folded and hes unwilling to go forward with the story. Miles and Row are stunned and disappointed. Row starts arguing, asking how its possible with all the proof they have to not allow the story to go forward. The editor says that without the assistants testimony they have nothing.Row leaves and heads for the subway. As shes walking, a girl from behind her starts yelling Row! Rowena!! and running after her. Row looks back and starts walking faster and finally runs down the stairs to the subway, barely missing the doors to the train. She stands on the platform and the girl catches up to her. Unhappily she greets the girl as Grace (Nicki Aycox). Row is trying to be nice but you can tell she detests Grace. Its obvious theyve known each other a long time but Grace seems very aggressive and almost mean. Grace asks how shes doing and Row doesnt say much. Grace says shes been dating this married guy she met online and he suddenly stopped calling her. She started stalking him and got a bunch of pictures with him and other women. She said Row should check him out. She feels like shes in danger of being dealt with because this guy has had women disappear from his life before. The guys name is Harrison Hill (Bruce Willis) and hes the head of his own marketing/advertising company.The subway train comes and Row steps on board. Grace shoves a manila file into Rows hands before the doors close and says Regards to your mother. The doors close and Row seems shaken up. She goes home and looks over the pictures, not thinking much of it.The next day at the office she hears about a dead body of a woman the police found in the river. They are having a hard time identifying the body because she was so bloated from being drowned. Row gets a phone call on her cell from the coroners office asking if she knows Grace. She said yes. They ask her to come down and identify the body. Row is shocked. She cant believe Grace is dead. The police tell her the found her in the river with weights attached to her ankles so shed sink to the bottom. She was also poisoned because her stomach had a big hole in it. The poison used is called mydriatics and its used to dilate eyes. They tell Row that its an amateur job of killing and drowning the body because the weights werent even heavy enough to keep the body from floating to the surface. She identifies the body (which is the only real nudity in the movie you see a pan shot of Graces body completely nude from top to bottom but its really plastic-looking and fake because shes all swollen and gross.) After she IDs Grace, she goes to the restroom and throws up. Shes completely shaken by the experience.She goes home and calls Miles. He cant believe Grace is dead either. Apparently Row had told Miles all about her and Miles had met her a few times. Graces was Rowenas next door neighbor and best friend growing up. Miles asks Row if shes seen Grace since Grace slept with Rows boyfriend, Cameron (Gary Dourdan). Row tells Miles about the subway incident, the pictures and that Grace was dating Harrison Hill. Miles says he finds it odd that suddenly Grace is dead when she had suspicions she was in danger. Miles and Row agree that they should start investigating Harrison Hill and his company to see if they had anything to do with Graces death.First, they set up Row with a user account to the chat room Harrison uses. As theyre setting it up, she records her voice saying Miles is hot on Miles laptop, to be funny (important). She invents a name and adds herself to his friends list. Harrison logs on and they begin to chat. He asks her how shes on his friends list. She pretends to be a former employee from his company. They flirt a lot over the chat room. Row keeps fishing for information but gets nowhere.Miles logs onto the computer and hacks into the temp service that Hill Enterprises uses for office help. He gives Grace a fake name and ID and puts her on the payroll at Hill Enterprises as a new-hire temp employee. She goes to Hill Enterprises the next morning and begins to fake being an employee. There are pictures in the office of the inside of human eyes after theyre dilated. Harrisons wife did an art show with these photos and they are prominently placed throughout the office.Her first duty is to make 500 gift bags for the Victorias Secret celebration party that night. Hill Enterprises helped V.S. with a huge advertising campaign for their Very Sexy collection and it was a huge success. The girl helping her is named Josie. They quickly become office friends. Josie starts gossiping about Harrison Hill and all the women he sleeps with. Harrison Hill keeps giving Row the eye as she walks through the office.After work, Row and Miles go back to her apartment. When they get to the door, she reaches under the mat and finds her key. As she opens door, Miles says hes more of a key on the top ledge of the doorframe guy. They hang out for a bit, chatting about how frustrated they are. Row says Miles can hang out for a bit but she has to go because she has to be at the VS celebration party. She leaves. The party goes well. Harrisons wife is there keeping an eye on him. Whenever a girl flirts with him too much, Harrisons assistant grabs her and asks her to leave. His wife is obviously very jealous.Row meets up with her former boyfriend, Cameron. They enter her apartment and have sex against the wall (but they are both fully clothed theres just a lot of humping going on). The camera pans away from them and you see Miles hiding in a dark corner of her apartment.Row continues to chat with Harrison online every night, even at work when hes in his office.The next day at Hill Enterprises, Harrison starts talking to Row and flirting with her. He asks her to meet him for a drink later that night. She says shed better not since hes married. He said he doesnt care and tells her where and when. She does show up and they flirt over drinks. Nothing happens. The next day she leaves her building for work only to find Harrison with a nice car out front to pick her up. Across the street Harrisons wife is sitting in a taxi, watching.Throughout the movie, flashbacks of Row as a child are shown. Images of her father trying to come in the bathroom and give her a bath (when its obvious hes abusing her) her hiding from him, etc.Miles has a spy program he wants Row to install on Harrisons computer. She tries but he walks in on her. She covers it up, pretending she was writing him a note about meeting her that night. He seems doubtful but brushes it off. They go out that night. They go out to dinner and while Row is using the bathroom she get's a text from Miles about their plan and Hill sees this. After dinner Hill confronts Row about the text.He pulls over before she goes home and said he knows what shes doing. She looks panicked. He says shes a spy from another advertising firm. She finally says she is. He gets really pissed and yells at her, really threatening and almost violent. She freaks out and says to take her home. He drops her off.She goes over to Miles apartment. She finds his key on the doorframe ledge and lets herself in. Hes not home. She has never been there before. She walks around and hears her voice saying Miles is hot from inside a wall. She finds a door blocked by a shelf in the bathroom and opens it. Inside is a shrine Miles has made to Row. REALLY creepy stuff. Walls plastered with her photo and even a statue with her face taped to it. She looks at his computer and sees videos of Miles and Grace having sex. The screen is small but they are naked and participating in a lot of S&M. Row is horrified.Miles comes home and finds her in the room. He tries to explain but Row is completely freaked out. She gets mad and leaves.Later in her apartment Row recalls the story she was working on in the beginning of the movie involving the Senator and his affair with a man. She recalls her statement about men in power and how they get their way. This is when she decides to go to the police with the info she has on Hill to bring him down for Grace's murder. She shows the detective the chat room and while the detective looks on she gets Hill to plan a meeting. This is enough for the detectives to suspect Hill and they go forward with an arrest. Hill is placed on trial and is found guilty of Grace's murder. They found traces of Grace's blood in his car.While the verdict is being read the scene switches from Row to Miles to Hill's wife. They are all heading to the bathroom towards the mirror cabinet. We see a hand open the mirror and pull out a can which unscrews at the bottom. The person opens the can and we see a bottle of the poison used to kill Grace. As the person closes the mirror cabinet we can only speculate who it might be of the 3 - and we see it is Row! She empties out the bottle of poison into the sink and it is at this moment that Miles walks in on her. He had figured it all out, that she was the one who killed Grace.He said he knows she used Harrison Hill as a cop out because he had access to the dilation medication through his wife. He said Row was trying to frame Harrison for a murder she committed.We see a flashback of Row and Graces meeting at the subway platform. We see Row call Grace later that night and meet up with her. She poisons a drink and Grace drinks it. Row disposes of the body in the river.A flashback is shown of Rows mom catching her dad sexually abusing her (Row was probably nine years old). Rows mom gets really upset and they get into a physical fight. Her mom hits her dad with a hard object and he dies. Row and her mother bury his body outside but Grace sees from the window next door. Shes been using this against Row her whole life. Row framed Hill by planting the blood evidence in his car when he was driving her home after dinner which ended with their argument.Row tells Miles the story. Miles says hell never tell anyone but now Row has to do something for him (sex is implied). Row turns and grabs a knife and stabs Miles in the stomach. He falls to the ground. She starts throwing stuff around the kitchen to make it look like a struggle happened. She takes Miles' hand and scratches his fingernails over her neck to make it look like he tried to hurt her. She then calls the detective and says that they may have put the wrong man (Hill) in jailWhile waiting for the police to arrive Row breaks down in tears and crouches down to cuddle Miles' lifeless body. The camera then slowly pans up and out towards the window and we see a man standing in the window across the way - he had seen the whole thing.
mystery, neo noir, murder, flashback