The new Halle Berry vehicle Perfect Stranger is so intent on fooling us with a last-minute "gotcha" revelation that it ignores just about everything else that matters.

Things like compelling characters and an involving narrative, for starters. Yeah, the movie tricks us. But by the time it gets around to it, we no longer care. It's a thriller without thrills.

Berry plays Rowena Price, an investigative reporter for a big New York paper who, as the film begins, has landed a huge sex expose involving a right-leaning member of Congress. Rowena's journalistic ethics are suspect - she writes under an assumed name and has no qualms about assuming a false identity in order to get inside the lawmaker's office - but if her nifty Manhattan apartment is any indication, she's well paid for her deviousness.

One day in the subway she's approached by a childhood friend, Grace (Nicki Aycox), who reveals that she has been having an affair with Harrison Hill (Bruce Willis), the powerful head of the city's biggest ad agency. Now Hill has unceremoniously dumped Grace and she's looking for revenge. She wants Rowena to expose Hill in print.

When Grace is found murdered, Rowena comes up with a plan to work as a temp at Hill's agency, snoop around and if necessary dangle herself as bait in front of the predatory exec.