Perfect Strangers (2016 film)

Perfect Strangers (Perfetti sconosciuti ) is a 2016 Italian comedy-drama film directed and co-written by Paolo Genovese. It was released in Italy on 11 February 2016.

The film was a critical and commercial success, winning the David di Donatello in the Best Film Category and grossing more than €16 million in Italy. It has been remade in more than 20 countries.

Plot
On the evening of a total eclipse of the moon, seven close friends gather for a dinner party. Early in the meal, one of the friends, a relationship therapist named Eva, says that she is convinced that many couples would separate if they saw the messages on each other's phones. As the friends debate this contention, they agree—some of them reluctantly—to play a game. They will each place their phone on the table and they will share their messages and calls with the rest of the group.

At first, the game seems harmless; no one has anything to hide. Gradually, the calls and messages become more compromising. They reveal that one married woman is having an affair and that a man who has been pretending to have an absent girlfriend is not who he seems. As the calls continue, the network of lies and secrets becomes increasingly tangled. Almost no one at the table is spared. By the end of the night, the group's friendships, marriages, and romances have been shattered.

As the guests leave the apartment, they behave as if nothing has happened. Each of their relationships are exactly as they were at the start of the evening. The game never happened, and everybody goes back to their own lies.

Cast

 * Giuseppe Battiston as Peppe
 * Anna Foglietta as Carlotta
 * Marco Giallini as Rocco
 * Edoardo Leo as Cosimo
 * Valerio Mastandrea as Lele
 * Alba Rohrwacher as Bianca
 * Kasia Smutniak as Eva
 * Benedetta Porcaroli as Sofia

Box office
The film was number-one on its opening week in Italy, with US$3.7 million. It grossed $31.6 million at the box office.

Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, it has an approval rating of 77% based on reviews from 13 critics, and an average rating of 6.7/10.

Remakes
, remakes were underway in Qatar and Sweden.

In February 2017, The Weinstein Company acquired the rights to an English-language remake. In December 2019, Issa Rae was announced to write, star in, and produce the US remake with Spyglass Media Group, a subsidiary of Lantern Entertainment, which acquired the assets of The Weinstein Company after its bankruptcy. In December 2023, producer Tarak Ben Ammar revealed that his Eagle Pictures was working on the remake with Italian filmmaker Carlo Carlei set to direct the film. Rae was no longer attached to star.

The 2022 Indian Malayalam film 12th Man is loosely based on the core idea of this film.