The greatest movie ever!

Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

A different way of telling a story

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

I'm so sorry to see how divisive this movie has proved to be (at least if the IMDb boards are anything to go by - people arguing on the internet, who knew?). I haven't ever looked up this movie since I first saw a press screening back in 2003. There was much about it I wanted to forget. It affected me as punishingly as Wolf Creek or Requiem For a Dream. Characters you can identify with (Rachel Blake at any rate), are debased to the point that they are completely broken and in my case, the viewer along with them. I didn't feel properly myself again for a week.I never found Perfect Strangers difficult to understand, or pointless, as many other viewers have suggested and it certainly is beautiful, visually. In fact it is - to my mind - good in any number of ways. These two characters are drawn exactly as clearly as they need to be as their interplay moves to its hideous conclusion. It hurt me in a way that I haven't forgotten in nine years. A psychological drama of the darkest hue about which much is uncertain, but one thing is for sure: it leads in the end to permanent damage for all concerned.

New Zealand screenwriter, producer and director Gaylene Preston's third feature film which she wrote and co-produced, was screened at the 39th Chicago International Film Festival in 2003, was shot on location at the West Coast of the South Island in New Zealand and is a New Zealand production which was produced by New Zealand producer Robin Laing. It tells the story about a middle-aged woman named Melanie who works in the kitchen at a restaurant. One night whilst she is out with her friends at a bar, a mysterious stranger appears out of the blue and after a brief conversation she joins him. He takes Melanie to his boat and the next day she wakes up in a hut on a remote Island by the coast.Distinctly and finely directed by New Zealand filmmaker Gaylene Preston, this quietly paced fictional tale which is narrated mostly from the main character's point of view, draws a quiet and intriguing portrayal of a remarkably unusual relationship between two strangers. While notable for it's naturalistic and atmospheric milieu depictions, sterling cinematography by New Zealand cinematographer Alun Bollinger and production design by art director and production designer Joe Bleakely, this character-driven, narrative-driven and unsettling mystery about trust depicts a rare study of character and contains a good score by composers David Donaldson, Stephen Roche and Janet Roddick.This at times wickedly humorous and somewhat surreal psychological thriller where a woman whom is looking for a man finds someone who seems to know very much about her, is impelled and reinforced by it's cogent narrative structure, substantial character development, colorful characters and the fine acting performances by New Zealand actor Sam Neill and Australian actress Rachael Blake. A romantic, lyrical and fairy-tale-like love-story from the early 21st century which takes an atypical approach in it's examination of relationships between men and women and which gained the award for Best Actress Rachael Blake at the 24th Fantasport International Film Festival in 2004.

This is an off-beat, wry thriller of the sub-Hitchcock "lone female in peril" genre from a country whose inhabitants find it difficult to take themselves seriously.Rachel Blake's Melissa is a woman past the first flush of beauty. After a hard day in a Westport fish and chip shop, she picks up handsome, suave charming Sam Neil in a bar, and he sweeps her off in his well-appointed fishing boat to his place, a shack on a lonely offshore island. She wakes up next morning with – Sam Neil, kidnapper and possible murderer. Being the plucky sort she gets in first and stabs him, and finds herself looking after him and falling in love. Unfortunately, she can not get him to medical help and he dies. No matter, there's this solar powered deep freeze and she puts him among the chickens and hams, happy to chat to him. But then another man arrives on the island, and Sam's ghost hasn't left.The tale is told largely from Melissa's point of view and, being in need of love it's plausible she might fall for a man who might turn out to be her murderer. It's odd that she so readily transfers her affections to someone else. Does she really think Sam is still around? Has she gone nuts? Rachael Blake is perfect as Melissa; a bit battered by life but still sexy, and with a single minded determination to stay alive. Hitchcock probably would approve of Melissa's assertiveness (due to his wife's influence he was a bit of a closet feminist). Sam Neil is always good as a mysterious stranger, though he must wake up sometimes and ask "who the hell am I this morning?" (He has never really bettered his 1983 performance as the title character in "Reilly, Ace of Spies".) Here, he is not called upon to explain his character, which is just as well. Sam isn't in to explanations.The West Coast setting, lush and bleak at the same time, is terrific and it's a nice film to watch, but it is an odd mixture – thriller looping into a caper-comedy. Very NZ though. I think Hitchcock would have liked it a bit more than the work of some of his American and French followers.

I pick up two rentals , one being a classic In the Mouth of Madness and the other this one. Somehow these two movies go hand in hand. Unfortunately your likely to fall asleep watching Perfect Strangers. One reviewer says it's unsettling. And that's how I'd probably put it. It flows (unlike Forgotten, ) but it's also utterly boring. Hence I'm not sure if I wanna sleep now or have a fit of a nitemare. It's like okay.. so... she killed him. Then she went nuts. He was already nuts? Oh well. I'm not sure I'd paste this as a great Sam Neill film. He seems older in this movie and boring and depressing wasn't my idea of a good time. Nor was it entertaining. Think I'll go jump off the dock now. :(5/10Quality: 7/10 Entertainment: 1/10 Replayable: 0/10