Page 42 - Here and Now – Apr 2024

“Perfect strangers” – Movie review

“Because we are breakable - all of us - some of us more than
others “

It is a simple enough story. A group of friends get together
for dinner to watch an eclipse, and then play a game in
which everyone shares every call and message they
received during the day from each other. This causes
secrets to come out and turns the situation complex.

Through a barrage of cognitive-emotive twists,
“Perfect Strangers” raises numerous questions around
the meaning of love and trust in man-made systems
called institutions/institution look-alikes.

It highlights the pressure human instinct feels under social ‘shoulds’ and ‘should nots’
Irrespective of gender, social expectations around every human relationship that we give a
name to (and define) spawn secrets, and secrets in relationships makes perfect strangers.

Some would see the film’s message as the perils of addictive temptations that our phones offer
us, or the secrets we hide in our phones, closets and hearts. I saw the film as posing a much
deeper question on social systems and relationships that we make for our conveniences and so-
called social ‘order.’ Funnily and ironically enough though, this very pushy intention for ‘order’
causes chaos in system!

Struggles of trusting those we love, the role of a useless emotion called guilt that one burdens
oneself with, the fear of shame and the cortisol we generate every day in our relationships -
and then the therapies we actually need, but deny…

I would applaud the maker of this film for their understanding of human compulsions, deep-
seated guilt and many related feelings that possibly keep many couples together - even when
they’ve drifted far apart emotionally. Maybe, given the right dinner party, we would want to
read what our friends say behind our backs, or find out about an affair we’d rather never know
about.
But, as it happens in “Perfect Strangers,” all we are left with is the unintended consequences of
secrets thrown open - secrets that wouldn’t be secrets in the first place if we did not shame

pg. 41