Simply Perfect

Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

An early movie by three lead actors who would go on to super-stardom, well Peter Green is not a superstar but makes a super villain. This is a slightly above average movie pastime that is not bad, but is bogged down by some genre conventions that are, well, conventional. The twist ending was completely unnecessary and for that indulgence it can be faulted.The supporting cast is good and the cinematography is excellent. There is one scene that stands out (in the park) for all those movie fans that recognize that hitting a moving target with a handgun is not as easy as it looks in most Hollywood products.The camera loves Halle Berry and here she displays some acting chops that would prove that she was not just another (very) pretty girl. So this is an average to slightly above average Neo-Noir that can be enjoyed for the best of it.

A story the average viewer has seen at least twenty times or more.The screenplay is almost entirely based on unexpected twists the last of which is so implausible only someone who has never seen HG Clouzot's "Les Diaboliques" will be surprised.That said ,Halle Berry is a solid thespian and a very attractive woman,but here she screams to no avail.Peter Green tries and tries to be threatening and scary.Clive Owen does not seem to believe in his part.The cops don't either.Only Clea Lewis displays a sense of humor and is the only one on the screen to have plenty of go.For a rainy day...Barely...

Halle Berry, around 30 in this movie, not yet the big name she was to become, plays Josie Potenza, married to an older wealthy man after they had barely known each other. Her husband Tony is played ably by veteran Christopher McDonald. His drinking problem seems to get in the way in his marriage. However, they talk, he agrees to try to quit drinking, and they drive into the Pacific Coast wilderness to spend some secluded time together. However, Tony is called back to work and Josie stays behind to enjoy the solitude. She makes a mistake when she goes to a local bar alone, attracts the attention of a strange looking man Cole (Peter Greene) but, in the cool and wet he gives her a ride back to the cabin, apparently an OK guy.Now, I can't say anymore about the actual story without giving away some key themes. I wouldn't necessarily recommend the movie to anyone, but if you see it, much better not to know too much. Berry is nice looking, the acting is pretty much what it should be, but the story relies on some twists near the end, and when it was over I felt a bit cheated. It isn't a totally bad movie, but it isn't a very good one either.SPOILERS. Even though Josie claims she loves her husband, she is at the same time having an affair with Jake Golden (Clive Owen). When in the wild she had to rebuff advances by Cole, even shooting and grazing him on the side of the face. He ends up back at her home, and follows her husband, getting into his car at night during an ATM stop, making him drive to a park, where he chased him down and shot him multiple times. Turns out he had been hired by Jake to get rid of Tony, but it was supposed to happen in the wild. Jake was broke and this was part of his plan to get Josie and her dead husband's riches. But Josie had a plan of her own, with Jake's wife Nora, and in the final scene we see Nora and Josie going away together, having disposed of the bad guy Cole and each of their cheating husbands.

My problem with this movie is that it tries too hard.It is neither thriller no suspenseful as it intended to be.Can you say predictable?? It tries to take twists and turns but any intelligent viewer has figured them out before the movie actually gets to them.1. Halle Berry's character says she doesn't need to speak with an attorney.Only an idiot would make a remark like that sitting in jail facing a murder one rap.2. Plot hole.We see Halle Berry in one scene playing with the gun that would eventually kill her husband. Now if she had nothing to do with it as she claimed, how did Peter Greene's character get the exact same gun? I'm not even a cop and I could have figured that one out.When Berry's Jeep breaks down in the middle of nowhere, there is no other car behind her. Greene just shows up out of the blue. Come on!!? Mainly the conversation between Cole Wilson (Greene) and Jake Golden (Clive Owen) How can Berry's character tell the story for scenes she wasn't even in? We learn that supposedly Golden hired Cole to do a simple hit and not even talk to Josie (Berry), but he became attracted to her.How can she tell how the murder occurred if she was not there or had nothing to do with it? And when Berry discovers Jake's involvement, this is no surprise as we already knew this! Jake's ex-wife had something to do with it obviously because she was always taking up for Josie.This movie just has bad pot holes and flaws.If you're going to do a murder-for-hire "Don't be seen with the killer in public" Dumb writing, even dumber acting.And this cast is generally a very talented set of actors, too bad they had to follow this piece of crap of a script.