Perfect Strangers

This New Zealand export is a genuine thought-provoker…albeit along the lines of "haven't I seen this somewhere before?" Indeed, one can find traces of Looking for Mr. Goodbar, The Collector, Swept Away, Dead Calm, The Most Dangerous Game, and a half-dozen made-for-Lifetime TV-movies about imperiled females seeking revenge. Rachael Blake stars as Melanie, a young woman who meets Sam Neill (whose character remains nameless) in a bar one night and falls for him. Unfortunately, she can't hold her liquor and passes out, only to awaken on a sailboat with Neill, en route to a distant, deserted island where he lives in a rundown shack. Despite the aggressive courtship, the couple establishes a relationship, but it quickly deteriorates once it becomes obvious they are badly mismatched…and the situation turns ugly. Perfect Strangers is so outlandish that it works best as an unintentional comedy rather than as the psychological thriller that filmmaker Gaylene Preston obviously intended. Blake is barely plausible as a no-nonsense action ass-kicker of the Sigourney-Weaver-Aliens school (we never learn where she picked up her survivalist skills), and poor Sam Neill, who has been adrift for years in search of a worthwhile role, seems badly distracted throughout this mess--as if he was plotting revenge against his agent. Not recommended. (P. Hall)