The theme of "The Perception" derives from a William Blake quote from a series of prophecies entitled "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell": "If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, Infinite."

As a mystery, the film has a complex structure with a novelist working on book modeled on his life story as the events are unfolding. The critical relationship is that of the husband (Richard) and his wife (Haley). The marriage has been rocky, but appears to be invigorated by a newfound trust between the couple.

Richard hatches a plan to "test" his wife, then backs out on the deal, offending Matt, who was to be paid to seduce Haley. One thing leads to another, and Matt is killed and buried in the couple's backyard.

But appearances can be deceiving! One of the most interesting characters is Richard's literary agent Nick, as played by Eric Roberts. The agent is approached by both the husband and the wife, who share details about their unstable relationship. A shortcoming of the film is that, apart from the kind agent, the other characters were uniformly unlikable, including the protagonist, the novelist Richard.

Still, the film is successful in getting the viewer to think about which scenes are real and which ones are the products of the novelist's imagination. There is a clever plot twist that makes the final minutes of "The Perception" a mind-turning experience.

For starter i can only say that the only thing missing in this plot is COLUMBO, yes the rain coat clad policeman acted by peter falk half a century ago.... is that a good or bad badge for this film, well it might have brought ahead a 10 from me, so this is a good movie after all.

the plot is simple, a man gets killed by the wife of the killed mans friend, no its not a riddle, but already here your perceptive abilities hit a wall or two. the story get back and forth in a fast pace,so steering with your tounge is not easy.its good acting, it has a good and emersive score, and you feel a great deal of the panick the characters goes through.

if you want an easy ride it aint, but its good for sure thinks the grumpy old man

Just another betrayal movie you've seen 100 times before.

You want to watch a much better one? See A Perfect Murder with Michael Douglas. Much Better. And I could make a huge list of other similar types of movies there's just nothing original here.

4/10