The small one that gets away

0 Comments | Philadelphia Inquirer, The, April, 2007 | by Carrie Rickey Inquirer Movie Critic

If you like thrillers, then you're familiar with the MacGuffin. It's the element - a package, a necklace, a Maltese falcon, even - that propels the suspense, but in the end proves not be a major plot point, just the bait the filmmakers cast to reel you in.

Perfect Stranger  is the Egg MacGuffin of whodunits, a cheesy affair that casts so many baited lures that they tangle each other and don't hook you.

In this one about a drop-dead gorgeous reporter out to solve the killing of a childhood friend lately involved with a married businessman, every character is guilty. Of Internet sex, perversion, adultery, computer hacking, abuse of power.

And director James Foley, who reportedly shot three different endings...