A Perfect Murder **** (1998, Michael Douglas, Gwyneth Paltrow, Viggo Mortensen, David Suchet) – Classic Movie Review 109

Director Andrew Davis’s 1998 sleek, seductive and supremely skilful psychological suspense thriller is an extremely imaginative reworking of Alfred Hitchcock’s 3D 1954 movie Dial M for Murder, itself based on Frederick Knott’s hit stage play. It produces a glossy new package that reflects the original but stands strongly on its own.

The mystery thriller entertainment value is extremely high in this under-valued movie. I’d called it A Perfect Remake. The liberties screenwriter Patrick Smith Kelly takes with the original story pay off big time. It’s now an entirely different kettle of fish, much more of a movie, much more ‘modern’, much more complicated (though the original is complicated enough). It doesn’t however replace Dial M for Murder in any way, it just valuably adds to it.

Michael Douglas is at his slimy best, perfectly cast as an arrogant, shady, middle-aged financier, millionaire industrialist Steven Taylor, who finds his cool-as-a-cucumber young heiress wife Emily (Gwyneth Paltrow) is having an affair with a seedy, young, struggling artist, David Shaw (Viggo Mortensen), at the same time as his business starts plummeting downwards.

When he discovers that her lover is also a twice-convicted conman who bleeds rich women dry, Douglas’s character hires Mortensen to kill Gwyneth for $500,000.

[Spoiler alert]

This triangle development to the story is the first surprise variant on the Hitchcock film, and works extremely well. Then, as in the original, the ‘killer’ is duly dispatched by the wife but – here’s surprise number two – it isn’t Mortensen!

[End spoiler alert]

Director Davis (The Fugitive, Under Siege) keeps it bristling with tension from the word go and powering along relentlessly, while the rich, wish-fulfilment New York settings are perfect.

The young Paltrow gleams with cool gorgeous beauty and exudes confidence and talent. She proves herself the true heir to Grace Kelly, who played the wife in the original. Mortensen is also first-rate in a downbeat role that’s tricky to play, especially up against the commanding and glamorous Douglas and Paltrow. David Suchet is hammy but fun as Mohamed Karaman, the police inspector on the case, using his ‘leetle grey cells’ to much advantage, of course.

The film features many of Mortensen’s own real artworks. His loft home/studio in the movie belonged to Dennis Hopper in real life.

The title is a quote from Dial M for Murder. It is the first of two Hitchcock remakes for Mortensen, who went on to Psycho (1998).

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© Derek Winnert 2013 Classic Movie Review 109

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