Perfect Strangers

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.

This low-budget crime drama deserves a second look (unfortunately it is currently unavailable in video). It is a good example of modern film noir, with its gritty realism, excellent New York location photography, and moody score.

The story involves, Johnny, a hitman (played by Brad Rijn), whose contract hit on a gangland rival is witnessed by a three year old boy, playing in his backyard. Johnny's initial motivation to "eliminate" the one witness to the crime (under orders of his mob boss) becomes conflicted by his growing romantic involvement with the boy's mother, Sally, (played by Anne Carlisle). Occasional semicomic relief is provided by the incomparable Ann Magnuson, in the role of a male-hating ultra-feminist and best friend of Sally.

The story is by no means perfect and the ending somewhat disappointing. But its appeal lies in its offbeat look and quirky directing and acting. This is a film with definite cult potential.

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.

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.

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.