Perfect Stranger, directed by James Foley, begins with journalist Rowena (played by Halle Berry) presenting Senator Sachs (played by Gordon MacDonald) with evidence that she plans to run a story in a New York newspaper of his affair with another man. Married and with gubernatorial ambitions, the Senator offers to do anything in order to avoid publication of his indiscretion. However, Narron (played by Richard Portnow), the newspaper's editor, soon tells her that the story will not be printed because the Senator has connections with the newspaper's publisher. Frustrated, Rowena quits the paper. Supported by computer whiz Miles (played by Giovanni Ribisi), she nevertheless decides to go after advertising CEO Harrison Hill (played by Bruce Willis), whom they suspect is responsible for a recent death of her friend from childhood on the basis of circumstantial evidence about his wife's interest in belladona, a substance that the film claims is poisonous in large doses. Accordingly, she gets a job as an employee in his company, hoping to snoop whether his clothes are on or off and presumably then to blackmail him. Her sting operation, however, is amateurish. Her family background is revealed as an explanation for her odd pursuit, which ends in surprises that are not particularly pleasant. MH
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