''The Perfect Stranger'' is a 2005 independent film based on the novel ''Dinner with a Perfect Stranger'' by
David Gregory. It was featured at the 2005
Western Film and Video Festival,
and was released on October 28, 2005. Directed by Jefferson Moore and Shane Sooter,
the film starre
Pamela Brumleyand
Jefferson Moore
Jefferson Moore is an American actor, writer, producer, director and editor based in Fairhope, Alabama
Fairhope is a city in Baldwin County, Alabama, United States, located on the eastern shoreline of Mobile Bay. The 2020 Census list ...
.
Plot
Nikki Cominsky (Pamela Brumley) is a
lawyer
A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solic ...
with problems in her
married
Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between t ...
life. She moved from
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...
and is working for a large law firm in the
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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area. She invites her husband to have a romantic dinner at a local restaurant, but he has already made plans to go to a baseball game. Disappointed, she goes to work and sees an invitation for dinner at the very same restaurant that she was planning on going to with her husband. At first she is irked because she is sick of the local churches' attempts at getting new followers, but quickly realizes that this may be a romantic attempt from her husband. Excited, she goes to the restaurant, but sees a mysterious man claiming to be
Jesus Christ
Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...
(Jefferson Moore). She thinks the man is
crazy
Insanity, madness, lunacy, and craziness are behaviors performed by certain abnormal mental or behavioral patterns. Insanity can be manifest as violations of societal norms, including a person or persons becoming a danger to themselves or t ...
and attempts to leave, but the man persuades her to stay by telling her that after dinner he would tell her who sent him. Knowing that she would want to find out who is responsible, and not wanting to refuse a free dinner, she stays. The man begins to use real life examples such as family and other religions to tie in why
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
is the one true religion, also as to why he really is, in fact, Jesus. Throughout their evening of conversation, arguments and debate, Nikki learns things she never knew about life,
Heaven
Heaven or the heavens, is a common religious cosmological or transcendent supernatural place where beings such as deities, angels, souls, saints, or venerated ancestors are said to originate, be enthroned, or reside. According to the belie ...
,
Hell
In religion and folklore, hell is a location in the afterlife in which evil souls are subjected to punitive suffering, most often through torture, as eternal punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hell ...
, other religions, the universe, and even herself. By the time dinner is over, she notices
large spike scars on the man's wrists, and her life has been changed forever. He says that she was the one who sent for him, years before. When Nikki gets home, she finds her husband there, and Sarah (her daughter) in bed, as was foretold by the stranger.
Cast
*
Pamela Brumley as Nikki Cominsky
*
Jefferson Moore
Jefferson Moore is an American actor, writer, producer, director and editor based in Fairhope, Alabama
Fairhope is a city in Baldwin County, Alabama, United States, located on the eastern shoreline of Mobile Bay. The 2020 Census list ...
as The Stranger
*
Tom Luce as Eduardo
* Dennis Martin as Matt Cominsky
*
Stella Davis as Sarah Cominsky
Production
The film was shot on location in
Louisville
Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border.
...
,
Kentucky
Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...
and neighboring
Jeffersonville,
Indiana
Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...
.
Sequels and Spinoffs
The movie is followed by two sequels: ''
Another Perfect Stranger '' (2007) and ''
Nikki and the Perfect Stranger'' (2013).
References
External links
Official website*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Perfect Stranger, The
Films about evangelicalism
2005 films
Films shot in Kentucky
Films shot in Indiana
2005 drama films
Films based on American novels
2000s English-language films
American independent films
American drama films
2000s American films