Perfect Strangers

New York filmmaker Larry Cohen has certainly made some memorable movies in his career, but "Perfect Strangers" has to be considered a considerable lesser effort by him. It gets off to a promising start, setting up the situation and characters in just a few minutes. Elsewhere in the movie, there are some moments of interesting direction that give the movie an almost documentary-like feeling. However, the majority of the movie is a letdown. After the intriguing beginning, the movie abruptly slows down to a snail-like pace where little to nothing of significance is happening. The relationship between the Brad Rijn and Anne Carlisle is also weak, with too little time showing the growing relationship between the two. (It also doesn't help that each character is each off-screen for a significant amount of time.) The low budget also sinks the movie, with poor cinematography and threadbare production values, including a very dated and cheesy musical score. I got the sense that Cohen's heart really wasn't in this project, despite being the writer as well as director. Skip it.

Some nice shots and a few moments of suspense still don't help Perfect Strangers from dragging a bit too much. It's one of Larry Cohen's more down to earth films without monster babies or blob-like yogurt, but not a lot of the script makes sense and it ends with more of a thud than a bang.

Apparently, this and Special Effects were shot back to back in 1983/84 as part of a package low-budget deal with Hemdale Films, and Cohen looked at Blind Alley as the "less complicated" one of the two (and hey, what says in-complicated like trying to direct a baby, right? By his account the baby Matthew did what he was told for the most part with help from his parents, and to Cohen's credit he's a great Baby Actor if that's a term I can throw, oh hey it's my review so I just did). The general impression on the whole from this one - which I like just slightly more than Special Effects) - is that it feels like Cohen in both the script and execution is making this like a Poverty Row director might in the 1940s, only updated for gratuitous nudity and occasionallu more brutal violence.

This is both to the benefit and detriment in the final product. I get that the film is about this baby who sees a killing, and even matches eyes with Johnny the killer (the actor Brad Rijn carries a certain intensity that works overall, a highlight being when he explains in his way of "comparative analysis" to Matthew via magazine how his predicament is not unlike... Elliot in ET, and it makes me smile to think of Larry Cohen watching ET like everyone else in the world, but I digress), and that Johnny is so pathological about pleasing his underworld boss that he'll stop at nothing to make sure the baby doesn't uh squeal or rattle or what have you, but... He's a baby. Cute one, but still not quite exactly able to pick a guy out of a line-up.

And the extent to which he ends up going to to shut a tyke up who can't even form words past Mom and No is kind of ridiculous. Moreover, Johnny is a pretty stupid and (connected with the Cohen ouvrere) violent and crazy, but by a certain point it's also the mom's fault for not seeing his other motives (Anne Carlisle, who actually does quite well with what she's given, most of all that intense real-crowd filmed set piece in the Soho streets with mom's baby daddy).

On the other hand, I like that only a story with such a nutty premise and execution, including a cast of supporting women friends of the Mom who make this a semi-sorta commentary on Feminist action against scumbag men (which in Cohen's world is almost a redundant statement) could come from such a mind and cinematic personality as his. It doesn't all work and sometimes drags, like with a police detective working the murder case who gets saddled with some clunky lines that only leads to a predictable (if dark) point, but Cohen, when he and his DP aren't using that high contrast or glaze or whatever it is on the lens to make exterior day scenes too bright, has some captivating compositions, like that other murder in the building set in silhouette against the downtown Manhattan skyline, or that wild shot where we see the kidnapping as the baby is on the carousel attached to a truck(!)

And how this ends ultimately is satisfying, even if it takes some time to get there. It's probably minor Cohen, but if you're like me and working your way through his body of work, it has its moments and eccentric and funny and hard-edged dialog to get you through.

One thing I always loved about Cohen's scripts is he could always find the smallest hook and exploit the concept to its fullest potential. This is a great example of that with an emphasis on small. Mafia hitman Johnny (Brad Rijn) offs a drug connection in a back alley, but notices a 2-year-old boy saw him. The mob doesn't sit well with this - the "no women, no kids" rule apparently on hold that day - and wants the kid offed before he...baby talks? So Johnny goes about befriending the boy's single mother, Sally (Anne Carlisle), in order to get close to him. Because, you know, saying, "Jesus, guys, the kid is only two and I'm pretty sure he won't identify me in a line up" won't work. It is to Cohen's credit that he can make such a reeeeee-diculous premise last for 90 minutes, but this is not one of King Cohen's best, for sure. There are some admirable parts though. He captures New York City really well and there are some amusing smaller roles (Otto von Wernherr is hilarious as a private eye vit a zick German accent). Cohen also shows some balls as he steals footage during a major feminist rally one NYC night and also has a confrontation between Sally and her ex that clearly no one on the busy streets knew was filming as a crowd gawks at them arguing (look for Cohen cameos in both scenes). In the end, however, it is hard to take the scenario seriously, especially when mafioso types are talking about how to silence a 2-year-old.

A hit-man 's crime took place under a toddler's eyes.The boy cannot speak yet ,but as his mother unwisely says,he's very clever,very observant and when he starts speaking,he will have a lot to tell us about.So the murderer seduces the mother in order to get rid of the witness.The only interesting scenes are the ones which involve the man and the child.And even with them,the movie never really takes off.The writers drag things out with their photographs trick which exhausts any suspense.The adults are not very convincing,and Johnny's behavior does not make any sense.The mother is a bubblehead -how long it takes her to find out what lies beneath!-,and the actress does not even succeed in making us believe she loves her son dearly.