Perfect Strangers (2003)

Please don't spend money on this.

Just perfect...

best movie i've ever seen.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

I happened to turn on my TV and this movie was just beginning on Showcase. I like Sam Neill so I decided to get a cup of coffee and watch a few minutes. I ended up sitting through it all.Sam Neill, as 'The Man' made a very charming, slightly twisted but totally delusional character who escorts a very pretty but slightly drunk Melanie, played by actress Rachael Blake, to 'his place' which is a skiff docked in the harbor. She has too much wine to drink and passes out on his boat. When she wakes, they're out to sea. They arrive at a remote uninhabited island where 'the man' has a shabby but chic cabin on a bluff. He fixes her a hot bath, prepares a delicious dinner for her.It gets weird after this. He tells her he loves her, imagines she's someone else, she tries to escape, ends up stabbing him in the side. I thought that would be the end of the weirdness, but it was just the start. The movie held my interest, made me laugh at some of the things Melanie does with 'the man'. It ends on an upbeat note.It's a love story really. We're led to believe it will be a story about kidnapping and being a hostage trying to escape but it's not at all. It's a very decent movie with a great performance by Rachael Blake. I'm surprised I haven't seen her in any movies before or since this one.

...sings Neil Finn in a catchy Crowded House song that plays at several points in the film. Could have been written especially for the film, and maybe it was, it's so apt.What a wonderful and surprising ride this movie was. Starts with a plot that's like standard Hollywood thriller fair, but then... wow.Rachel Blake is amazing to watch in a brave performance of an unusual character-journey, to say the least. It's also a tribute to the mercurial power of Sam Neil that I wasn't once distracted enough to expect a dinosaur to spring from the bushes or a mute Holly Hunter to start playing a piano, despite the familiar image of Sam Niel against lush island locations.Great photography of such great NZ locations. Great humour, dialogue and direction from Gaylene Preston.I'd like to see another Gaylene Preston film soon and I'm sorry to see nothing new is listed currently here for her. Buy the DVD - it's a crime it was so cheap!!!

I disagree with the previous comment. The movie possesses enough drama and suspense to keep the viewers interested until the very end. This is the story of two people who could have been happy together under different circumstances. It's also the story of what happens when people make the wrong choice. The movie asks the question what makes a certain choice the wrong one and points out that every choice could be both right and wrong. The music is well chosen, and the combination between Puccini's opera "Madam Butterfly" and a number of contemporary ballads enhances the atmosphere. The ending is unexpected and leaves the viewer surprised and delighted at the same time.

True is, if I haven't been many years the Sam Neill's fan I'd have never rented videotape with this movie. First I have read user comments at this pages and I thought this movie is something quite modern, unwatchable, not too much comprehensible. Finally, when i have watched it, I was pleasantly surprised. By my mean story about woman who sank up under influence insane handsome man is really great movie. I like this unique mix romance, a little humor, a little horror and psychology used in this movie. It is refreshing and remarkable thing inside the flood many and many constantly similar productions from the all world. If you prefer not traditional story, if you like emotional movies, if you like great camera, and if you don't persist at traditional happy ends, you would love this movie.