Synopsis
Melanie is a waitress in a small port restaurant. One day, she follows a handsome man onto his boat and to an island where he lives alone. After they arrive, she learns that the man has kidnapped her. At first glance, Perfect Strangers is a story about the relationship between the captor and captive reminiscent of William Wyler’s The Collector and Pedro Almodovar’s Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!. However, unlike the defined roles of the lead characters in Wyler’s pictures, the relationship in Perfect Strangers is unstable in nature from the start to the finish. The film is a dark romance story. Not your typical romance where two people fall in love, but a romance between two lonely people who live in disparity and have created fantasies in their minds. Their fantasies played out through the kidnapping, also contaminates the lives of others. Perfect Strangers explores the relationship that we are used to and the dangers they hold, when situations becomes extreme. Although seemingly safe, even small talk can become intimate and lead to uncomfortable ironies. (Djuna)