Dial M for Murder was not one of Hitchcock's best movies, but this remake isn't even in the same league, despite the appeal of its two stars, Michael Douglas and Gwyneth Paltrow. Douglas takes the Ray Milland role here, plotting the demise of his beautiful, wealthy wife, Paltrow (played by Grace Kelly in the original), by getting her lover, Viggo Mortensen, to murder her for a $500,000 fee. So far so good, but things quickly come unglued. So, too, does Andrew Davis's direction, which sometimes fails to maintain the tension of the first hour, while the script seems more interested in making obvious points about life and art in the late 1990s.

Millionaire industrialist Steven Taylor is a man who has everything but what he craves most: the love and fidelity of his wife. A hugely successful player in the New York financial world, he considers her to be his most treasured acquisition. But she needs more than simply the role of dazzling accessory.