Plot

Wealthy Wall Street speculator Steven Taylor finds that his wife Emily Bradford has a lover, struggling artist David Shaw. Steven investigates Shaw and manipulates him into murdering Emily. It seems like a perfect crime.

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. Brilliant in her own right, she works at the U.N. and is involved with a struggling artist who fulfills her emotional needs. When her husband discovers her indiscretion, he sets out to commit the perfect murder and inherit her considerable trust fund in the bargain.—[ dark angel grace ]

She is sleeping with an artist. Her husband, much older than she, is controlling; plus, he's a rich international investor in financial trouble. Then we learn that she's in love with the artist, that she has her own fortune, which the artist is possibly more interested in than in her, and that her husband has figured out she's having an affair. He approaches the artist with plans for a perfect murder. But the best laid plans go awry.—<jhailey@hotmail.com>

Steven Taylor (Michael Douglas) is a Wall Street financier married to Emily (Gwyneth Paltrow), a translator for the United Nations. When his risky personal investments start unraveling, he intends to access Emily's personal fortune of $100 million to cover his losses. Meanwhile, Emily enjoys an affair with painter David Shaw (Viggo Mortensen) and is considering leaving Steven. Steven meets David at a gala and can sense the tension between Emily and David and asks to visit David's studio in Brooklyn. He has a private detective follow Emily when she visits David the very next day.

Steven arrives at David's studio the next day (after Emily leaves). He reveals that he knows about the affair, and used his influence to investigate David's criminal past as an ex-convict who cons rich women out of their money. Steven offers David $500,000 ($100K now and $400K later) to murder Emily. When David responds that he and Emily are in love, Steven reminds him his next arrest will mean 15 years imprisonment. Emily had left her wedding ring at David's apartment from her visit that afternoon and David was worried that Steven would see that.

Steven calls David to meet him at his apartment the following afternoon, when Emily is away at her work. He then mails the photos of Emily and David's affair to himself from a postbox near to David's apartment. He wants the murder to look like a blackmail gone wrong. Steven hides the door key from Emily's key-ring outside the service entrance to their lavish Manhattan co-op apartment, he also shows David how to enter the Apartment building undetected by exploiting a gap in the surveillance camera coverage. David is to use the key, kill her, and make it look like a robbery (Steven will call at the home phone at 10 pm, and when Emily answers, David will enter the apartment killing her. It will look like the robber was surprised by Emily's presence in the kitchen and attacked her). Steven gives David the $100K.

On the day of the murder, David prepares an elaborate meal for Emily at his place, but Steven picks Emily up from work and takes her to lunch instead. Emily is unable to message David (no cellphones for everyone) and he is enraged. Before leaving for the card game, when Emily enters the shower, Steven takes Emily's apartment key and puts it into a magnetic box behind a pipe at the service entrance. He leaves the service door unbolted (which is usually bolted) and leaves. Steven thinks David has entered via the parking garage, when he exited the building in his car (he didn't see David's face).

At his card game, Steven takes a break and uses his cellphone to make a call to an automated bank system, adding to his alibi, while using a second phone to call Emily. Emily answers in the kitchen and is attacked by a masked assailant but stabs him in the neck with a meat thermometer. Steven returns expecting Emily to be dead but finds the assailant's body. He takes the key from the body and puts it back on Emily's key-chain. Police arrive, led by Detective Karaman (David Suchet). They remove the assailant's mask and Karaman notices that Steven is surprised - the body is not David's. Outside, David watches the body being removed from the building in a black bag and assumes it to be Emily.

Steven takes Emily to stay at her mother's. A sobbing David (who thinks Emily is dead) receives a call from Emily telling him she is fine and will be back soon. Steven calls David afterwards and organizes a meet on a ferry. David says that the killer was a person he knew from prison. Emily visits her coworker, Raquel (Sarita Choudhury), and tells her she has decided to leave Steven. She tells her mother as well. Raquel tells Emily that money is foremost reason for killing a spouse, and sleeping around is 2nd. Raquel is also stunned to know that Emily doesn't have a prenup with Steven, and if she dies, he gets a $100M. Emily uses her connections to speak to a bank executive, learning of Steven's financial troubles. She then informs Karaman, who says that Steven's alibi is solid, though there is the minor concern that the dead assailant did not have keys of any kind on his body (not even to his own apartment). Still losing money, Steven receives a call from David, who plays an audio tape of the two discussing the plan to kill Emily and demands the full $500,000 or he will turn Steven in.

Emily returns to her apartment for the first time, but her key does not work. This spurs her to go to the apartment of the assailant (based on her conversation with Karaman), discovering that her key unlocks his door. Emily confronts Steven with this and his financial problems. Steven responds with David's sordid past (including the pics that he claims David sent him) and accuses him of being a blackmailer conning her and threatening him. When he saw the dead body in their kitchen, he assumed it was David and took the key from his pocket so as not to implicate Emily. Steven goes to David's loft with the cash but finds a note directing him to a park. David's phone rings, and Steven answers - it is a ticketing agent, confirming David's train to Montreal. Steven meets David in a park and swaps the money for the audio tape.

Reaching the private compartment on the train, David opens the bathroom door; Steven lunges out and stabs him, taking David's gun and the money. A dying David laughs, revealing he mailed a copy of the tape to Emily via courier service. Steven rushes home and finds the mail still unopened. He hides the money, gun, and audio tape in his safe before Emily enters the room.

Steven showers then dresses for dinner, but Emily suggests they stay in instead. As she heads out to pick up food, she mentions that they should have the locks changed since her key is missing. Steven checks the service entrance, finds the key he hid for David, and realizes that the attacker had put it back after unlocking the door. Emily suddenly appears, revealing that she knows everything now, having found the tape in the safe while he showered. When she turns to leave, Steven attacks her. A brief fight ensues, ending when Emily uses David's gun (from the safe) to kill Steven. Karaman and his officers arrive. Emily plays David's tape, then explains what happened after she told Steven, to which Karaman replies: "What else could you do?"