"Perfect Child" opens with a harrowing scene from the past in the life of Sarah Leslie Daniels. As a little girl, Sarah's step-sister, Amanda, died by drowning in the family swimming pool. Little Sarah discovered the body floating in the water. Now, as an adult, Sarah is still haunted by the drowning of little Amanda, for which she feels a life-damaging guilt.
The filmmakers develop a motif of water throughout the film. This is the kind of special effect that Hitchcock would use in his films to develop both suspense and horror. In the case of Sarah Daniels, the association of water with death continues to trouble her in her waking and sleeping life.
Sarah is a talented agent for a PR firm. Her company's success is due to her relationship with business magnate Paul Cranmore, who takes a liking to Sarah and eventually marries her. But when Sarah moves into Paul's house, she has to contend with a spoiled daughter named Lily.
When Sarah's life turns into a nightmare with stolen items from her laptop, the allergic reaction of little Lily to food prepared by Sarah, and interference from Paul's sultry business associate named Monica, Sarah's panic attacks increase, and it appears as if her marriage and her life are about to collapse.
The film was successful in developing intrigue in the interesting characters and suspense in the mysterious identity of the perpetrator who is attempting to ruin Sarah's life. The intensity builds to a climax in a raging storm and the dangerous rapids of a nearly river that may endanger the life of Sarah and the baby that she is carrying.
Both thematically and visually, the film was a highly watchable domestic drama with water, water everywhere.
Perfect Child
2007
Action / Drama / Thriller
Perfect Child
2007
Action / Drama / Thriller
Plot summary
Brilliant software entrepreneur Paul Jacobs meets PR agent Sarah Daniels at his spoiled rotten daughter Lily's tennis club. First Sara seduces Paul to hire her firm for his, then they fall in love and get married. But both Lily and Paul's business parter (and ex) Monica are secretly jealous and want Sara out. Accidents hit both his family and his firm hard, but are they accidents and if not, who is staging them? Secrets from Paul's, Sara's and some others' past complicate things further.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
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Water, Water Everywhere!
The perfect child
The movie itself was intense though predictable. The single father of a young teenage daughter begins a relationship with an attractive young woman who has another attractive woman as his business partner with feelings for him. When he decides to take the relationship to the next level, his daughter and business partner aren't too thrilled to say the least and strange but scary things begin to happen that makes her look suspicious. It goes to show anyone who marries someone with a young teenager beware and be careful. It's best to get some counseling and deal with feeling on both sides or else trouble comes your way. Life is so hard in itself for a teenager dealing with hormone levels, a loss of her mother, a doting dad who is always there for her. It seems as if the dad is in a hurry to try and replace the mother his daughter lost. He really should have been trying to raise his daughter and putting her first before he got involved with any other woman as this was not fair to his daughter. She felt every time he brought in another woman that this woman would try and put her out or send her away. The woman knew he had his daughter as a priority and both should have waited before getting involved. Sometimes the stepmother does try and get rid of his children from a prior marriage and always ends up tragic. The father and woman in this movie acted selfish and didn't consider the young girls feeling at all and as a result trouble happened.
Perfect Child-Back to 1956's Bad Seed ***
In the 1956 "The Bad Seed," no one else was suspect other than the famous character that Patty McCormack brought to life. In this version, everyone in the cast has had something to make you look over your shoulder twice when you see them.
Our divorced father was in the house when his girlfriend got electrocuted in error. His associate, a cunning woman, once beat up another woman. Then, he meets a woman who had guilt feelings for not watching her step-sister in the pool causing the death of the latter.
Our guy and gal quickly marry and there is mayhem that follows. People are getting poisoned, computers are getting hacked and attempts are made to murder one another.
After a while, you know where this interesting thriller is heading.