20 Great Movie Remakes With One Miscast Role

Andrew Davis’ remake of Hitchcock's Dial M for Murder doesn’t get mentioned very often these days, having largely been left in the '90s, but it’s a good movie with a surprising stack of talent in front of the camera, including Viggo Mortensen, Michael Douglas, and Gwyneth Paltrow.

The trio play Emily (Paltrow), the pampered younger wife of Wall Street trader Steven Taylor (Douglas), and David Shaw (Mortensen), the ex-con posing as an artist that Emily's having an affair with. Upon discovering the affair, Steven hires David to murder Emily for $500k and make it look like a botched robbery, but - needless to say - all does not go to plan.

Screenwriter Patrick Smith Kelly reimagines Hitchcock’s film as a steamy and stylish late-'90s crime thriller, rewriting the plot to fit, and for the most part, it works - not holding a candle to the original, but standing out as its own thing.

Now, Mortensen and Douglas could do this with their eyes closed, and in theory, Gwyneth Paltrow should have been able to also, having done solid work around this time in Se7en, Hard Eight, and Sliding Doors, yet she falls flat in the Grace Kelly role. Yes, this one is designed to be played with less theatrics and more realism than the Hitchcock movie, but Paltrow went too far, flattening her character out into something bland and uncharismatic.