this guy got busted by Chris Hansen on Dateline NBC twice. you’d think he’d learn his lesson. guess not. he’s a snappy dresser too. i love this show.

If you’ve ever seen NBC’s “To Catch A Predator” you know how embarrassing it is to get caught on live TV.

That first message is courtesy of a content supplier on YouTube. The second is a missing-the-point-somehow comment filed under “Funny Videos” at Googly Foogly. You see, there are people who watch TV programs about sex predators not because the subject is newsworthy, but because it’s entertaining.

Perfect Stranger reeks of being designed precisely for this demographic. Its audience is out there somewhere, and this movie hopes it finds them. I hope you’re not one of them.

The film features a storyline with sexually abused children, perverts with online aliases, women who play along with such men for their own purposes, and To Catch A Predator-style busts. It’s got same-sex-for-influence intern-politico scandals. It’s got brutal sex crimes, rough sex, and “gee-Mr.-Springer-I-just-don’t-know” DNA tests. How topical. How current. How hip.

And the film has nothing intelligent to say about any of this. It just plays it all for entertainment value, hoping that the audience gets some kind of prurient thrill from sitting in on Internet dirtytalk and runaway sexual obsession.

How pathetic.

Can this film be directed by the same James Foley who drew career-defining performances from Sean Penn and Chris Walken in At Close Range? Who breathed new if lugubrious life into film noir through Jason Patric and Rachel Ward in After Dark, My Sweet? Who corralled a host of award-winners for the knockout Glengarry Glen Ross? Who made a star out of Mark Wahlberg in the nonetheless lowbrow Fear?

Well, yes it can. A decade has passed since his last major studio film, The Chamber; but his basic skill set is still intact, and his reputation is still apparently able to attract Hollywood megawatt stars Halle Berry and Bruce Willis to lead a cast of characters who are all filthy. None of them are appealing, and the excuse seems to be that “we’ve all got secrets,” as one character puts it. Well, I understand that sentiment. I really do. Nonetheless, I wanted to take a shower after screening this one.

In short, Berry plays Rowena, an ace reporter with a nom de plume whose story on a dirty senator has just been buried. When an old friend from her checkered past turns up dead, Rowena decides to go after the high-powered ad exec who was diddling the dead girl on the sly. And in true twisty-turny thriller style, everyone’s a potential suspect in the killing—advertising executive Harrison Hill (played by Willis), Hill’s territorial and moneyed wife, Hill’s territorial and sexy personal assistant, Rowena’s obsessive investigative partner, and Rowena’s ex. Heck, you guessed it—even Ro’s got her share of dark twisted secrets.

But somewhere, doesn’t a story like this need a hero, even if doesn’t turn out to be who you think it might? Is it “realism,” cynicism, irony, or just mean-spiritedness that demands that everyone’s hands be dirty?

The other day during roundtable interviews, Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead writer/star Simon Pegg remarked that normally objectionable content in certain films gets a pass if those films are “essentially good-natured. The films that get the harshest ratings are literally nasty pieces of work.”

It’s almost a crime that Hot Fuzz and Perfect Strangers share the same rating—and that’s not an argument that Hot Fuzz should be rated less stringently. It’s just that Perfect Strangers is a nasty piece of work indeed, one of those rare cases which make me wonder why I do what I do. The only inherently spiritual thing about this work of “art” is the cry of wounded souls—a cry that the film itself just stands by and ignores.

Am I missing something here? Possibly. But please don’t see this film just to prove me wrong. I’ll just admit I’m wrong and save you the trouble.

There now; doesn’t that feel better?

Perfect Strangers is rated R “for sexual content, nudity, some disturbing violent images and language.” If you’re actually considering taking your children to see this film with you, consider spending some money on family therapy, too.

Courtesy of a local publicist, Greg attended a promotional screening of Perfect Strangers.