A Perfect Murder Blu-ray delivers great video and solid audio in this fan-pleasing Blu-ray release
A hotshot Wall Street trader discovers that his rich and beautiful "trophy" wife is having an affair with a bohemian artist and plots to have her murdered.
For more about A Perfect Murder and the A Perfect Murder Blu-ray release, see the A Perfect Murder Blu-ray Review published by Michael Reuben on July 17, 2012 where this Blu-ray release scored 3.0 out of 5.
A Perfect Murder is based on the same 1952 stage play by Frederick Knott that Alfred Hitchcock
memorably filmed as Dial M for Murder. Hitchcock kept the play's title and much of its
dialogue, and he also retained its limited setting, where most of the action was confined to a
London apartment inhabited by an unfaithful wife and her homicidally vengeful husband. Despite
strong performances by Grace Kelly and Ray Milland, the film gets stolen from both of them in
the third act by English veteran John Williams, whose Chief Inspector Hubbard unravels the
elaborate plot through a painstaking analysis of latch keys.
The new version directed by Andrew Davis (The Fugitive) updates the setting to 1990s New
York City and borrows a few plot points from Knott's play (the cheating wife, the vindictive
husband, the business with keys), but it fails to achieve the one thing that makes Dial M for
Murder a classic: suspense. The narrative rot that had been steadily infecting Hollywood had
progressed to the point where even the director of The Fugitive was no longer allowed to
generate tension the way Hitchcock did, that is, by giving the audience all (or nearly all) of the
relevant information up front. Scripts have to be crammed with arbitrary twists, reveals and
game-changers, so that, instead of investing in a character's situation (like Grace Kelly's
apparently hopeless plight in Dial M for Murder), audiences have gotten used to sitting back and
waiting for the next switcheroo. Indeed, Patrick Smith Kelly's script becomes such a shell game
that, by the end of the film, the only thing viewers feel for is the unhappy couple's fabulous
apartment. It's more interesting than any of the characters.
Perhaps as a nod to Psycho, the film opens outside the Brooklyn loft of artist David Shaw (Viggo
Mortensen), which the camera then enters through a window to find a couple stealing an
afternoon together: Shaw and his lover, Emily Taylor (Gwyneth Paltrow), the much younger
"trophy" wife of international currency trader, Steven Taylor (Michael Douglas). Emily, too, has
an international job; she works as a translator at the United Nations with her best friend, Raquel
(Sarita Choudhury). From afternoons with Shaw, Emily returns to the lavishly appointed Fifth
Avenue apartment she shares with Steven. Herself a child of wealth and privilege, Emily looks
smashing on Steven's arm as they attend high-toned functions among the elite of Manhattan. One
of them is a charity ball at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where Shaw is present, and Emily is
forced into the awkward position of introducing her husband to her lover.
But Steven knows all about Shaw. He's the kind of Wall Street shark who prides himself on
being a step ahead of everyone around him. On the pretext of looking at Shaw's work, he visits
Shaw's studio and confronts him about Emily. Then he makes Shaw a shocking offer: Steven
will pay the artist $500,000 to kill Emily.
Details of time, place and character aside, this is the first truly major change from Knott's play
and Hitchcock's film, in which the wife's lover and the hired killer were separate characters. As
in Dial M for Murder, Steven has assembled blackmail material to pressure Shaw to do his
bidding, but the fact that Shaw has an existing, intimate relationship with the intended victim
clouds the character's portrayal, even for an actor as skilled as Viggo Mortensen (and yes, I'm
leaving out a few things for the sake of first-time viewers). As for Emily, no actress on the
planet—not even Meryl Streep—could convincingly play a supposedly intelligent and
accomplished woman who has cluelessly fallen for both a husband and a lover willing to murder
her.
As in Dial M for Murder, Steven has planned in detail how his wife should be killed in their
apartment while he is out for the evening, in what will appear to be a botched burglary. The plan
goes awry, and the lead detective investigating the case, a Palestinian American named Karaman
(David Suchet), senses that something is off but can't say what. He and Emily establish a bond,
however, when she speaks to him in Arabic.
By this point, though, A Perfect Murder has broken off completely from its source material to
follow its own loopy path designed for short attention spans. Motivations and agendas tumble,
reverse and collide with such breakneck speed that, just to take one example, Emily leaves
Steven, investigates him (illegally), reports him to Det. Karaman and then reconciles with him,
all in the space of what appears to be about two days. While it may be true that the rich are
different from you and me (as Det. Karaman's partner reminds him), it's still a requirement of
good screenwriting that a character behave with enough consistency to remain credible, and
Emily fails on that point even worse than Shaw.
Steven is the only member of the triangle who makes any sense, but it's one of Michael Douglas'
weakest performances. Douglas' gift is to make villains and rogues appealing (think Gordon
Gekko, D-Fens in Falling Down or Nick Curran in Basic Instinct). With a little more magnetism
in the character, we might at least be able to see what attracted Emily in the first place, just as
Ray Milland's Tony in Dial M for Murder maintained a genial exterior from the beginning to the
very end. But Douglas might as well have a twirling moustache in The Perfect Murder. When he
tries to smile, he looks like he's preparing to dine on someone.
Polish cinematographer Dariusz Wolski (The Crow, Prometheus) discusses on his commentary
track what a departure it was for him to shoot a film that was primarily dialogue instead of action
set pieces, but he also says that director Davis shoots dialogue like an action director, with the
camera constantly moving. Wolski also had to address the practical demands of shooting in
places like the Metropolitan Museum of Art, whose proprietors placed severe restrictions on
what lighting equipment could and couldn't be used. In the end, he delivered a rich and glossy
image for the Taylors' life, taking full advantage of his background working with directors who
came from the world of advertising such as Alex Proyas and Ridley Scott. In contrast to the deep
hues and luxuriant surfaces of the Taylors' world, Shaw's studio and general environs are rougher
and edgier (with brighter colors, especially red, as an accent), and the image has more "grit" to it.
Warner's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray reproduces Wolski's imagery with a detailed and fine-grained picture that is natural and film-like. The blacks are
deep, which is essential in such dark
locations as Shaw's studio. The subtly rich hues in both the Taylor apartment and Steven's
enormous downtown office are reproduced with understated intensity. (In his commentary,
production designer Philip Rosenberg says he wanted Steven's office to reflect that its occupant
was tasteful, as opposed to, say, Donald Trump.) The grain structure appears undisturbed by
filtering, sharpening or other inappropriate tinkering, and I did not encounter any compression
artifacts.
As befits a film that is primarily dialogue, A Perfect Murder's soundtrack, presented in DTS-HD
MA 5.1, doesn't have any showy surround effects, but it does use the full speaker array to create
a sense of ambiance in interesting environments like the museum gala attended by Steven and
Emily, the subway when Emily rides it, an Amtrak train, various restaurants, a U.N. summit
meeting and a crowded downtown park. The bass extension on James Newton Howard's
characteristically dramatic score is solid and powerful, and the rest of its range sounds good as
well. Dialogue is always clear.
The extras have been ported over from the 1998 "special edition" DVD. Omitted are only the
"Cast and Crew" bios and the "About the Story" production notes.
Commentary by Director Andrew Davis, Screenwriter Patrick Smith Kelly and
Actor Michael Douglas: Davis and Kelly were recorded together, while Douglas was
recorded separately and his comments edited in later. Douglas' comments, though sparse,
are the most interesting, because he discusses what attracted him to the role and his
approach to it, as well as his career to that point in general. He's also frank about his
dislike of the alternate ending that was tried and ultimately rejected. Davis and Kelly are
far less illuminating, because they tend to point out the obvious, such as who is deceiving
whom at this or that moment, although Davis drops a few useful items about locations and
the casting of minor parts. It's interesting to learn, for example, that the much-remarked-on apartment occupied by the Taylors was actually a set built
on a soundstage.
Commentary by Producer Peter Macgregor-Scott, Cinematographer Dariusz
Wolski, Costume Designer Ellen Mirojnick, Set Decorator Debra Schutt and
Production Designer Philp Rosenberg: These are really three separate interviews cut
together in alternating segments, and none of the participants sounds like they were
watching the film as they discussed it. Mcgregor-Scott and Wolski focus on general
logistics and lighting; Mirojnick discusses her approach to costume design generally and
A Perfect Murder in particular; and Schutt and Rosenberg detail the inventive shortcuts
necessary to create the film's lavish environments without going over budget. The track is
sometimes dry, but it's full of practical information about the nuts and bolts of
filmmaking.
Alternate Ending (with Optional Commentary by Director Andrew Davis) (SD;
2.35:1, enhanced; 5:24): To put this in spoiler-free terms, the alternate ending reaches the
same result, but with a different motivation and state of mind on the part of a key player.
It's clear from Davis' commentary, and also from Douglas' and Macgregor-Scott's on the
main feature, that the impetus for creating this alternative came from producers and the
studio. Though Macgregor-Scott liked it, he says it tested badly with the female audience
over 25. I find it so obviously inferior to the theatrical ending that it's hard to imagine
there was ever a debate.
It's appropriate that the DVD and Blu-ray of A Perfect Murder should devote an entire
commentary to the work of the craftspeople, because the film's surface is most of what it has
going for it. The Blu-ray is recommended on its technical merits; the film is not.
This summer, Warner Home Entertainment will continue transferring its library catalog onto the HD format. The studio will release Blu-rays for sixteen popular thrillers, including The Butterfly Effect, Coma, Hard to Kill, Next of Kin, Outland, and the Blu-ray ...
