Welcome to Retro Rewind, the TGJ original feature launched to revisit TV and Film’s glorious past.
Today, we return to 1998 to spotlight the movie ‘A Perfect Murder’ which stars Gwyneth Paltrow and Michael Douglas.
In it, Douglas’ character finds his wealth on course to crashing and burning prompting him to hatch a devious plan to have his wife murdered so that he can gain access to her enormous fortune.
Who he asks to do the dirty deed? Her boyfriend.
The release was created with $60 million and swept up a sweet $128 million at the box office following its unveiling on June 5th 1998.
‘The New York Times‘ had this to say about the movie…
Ultimately, the sleekness of ”A Perfect Murder” can’t conceal the fact that its characters are stick figures in an elaborate three-way game featuring two cats and one very wiley mouse. Of the three, Ms. Paltrow’s Emily is the most problematic. Although the movie halfheartedly tries to portray her as a damsel in distress, that effort doesn’t wash.
This resourceful late-90’s career woman, who works as a translator at the United Nations, is no helpless blushing victim of male skulduggery. She may not be quite as cunning as her husband, but she is just as deceitful. And Ms. Paltrow, whose air is far too worldly for her to be a convincing ingenue, gives her character a crisp professional edge.
LOVE this movie! It was a fairly good remake of Hitchcock’s ‘Dial M For Murder’. And the critic is right about Gwyneth Paltrow’s performance, although she still did a good job.