Erbarmungslos gejagt

Average mystery where a young and beautiful woman (Arquette) and her son are harrased by his ex-husband after the divorce. Afterward, enter the police and finally the FBI that offered special protection for the lady in distress because her ex-husband would be a great boss in the ranks of the organized crime in America. But is it the true? Good premise and so-so development completely marred by a simple and unconvincing ending. I give this a 5 (five).

Sarah is going through her divorce where she has won custody of her son, 2 houses, half a business and a million cash. She is the target of an attempted murder and taken into protective custody of the FBI and she discovers her ex-husband is a leading mobster and her testimony is needed to put him on trial. With her life more in danger than ever she, her son Sam and FBI Agent Kevin Nicholas.

This starts as a pretty standard "woman in peril" TV movie and really stays that way for most of it. The film doesn't have that much excitement and just moves from one location to another with the main strand of the film being the romance between Sarah (Rosanna Arquette) and Kevin (Scott Bakula).

The performances are standard at best. Arquette is quite good as the woman in danger, but some scenes are just terrible - in the first five minutes alone she "plays" piano with her son as they both nod to different beats without seeming to move their arms sideways. Bakula is far too rigid as the FBI agent making it difficult to like his character and it makes the later romance with Arquette seem really unlikely. The standout performance is Max Pomeranc as the child Sam. He was brilliant in Innocent Moves and was good here too, but even he has very little to do.

20 minutes from the end there is a really good twist - I honestly didn't see it coming. And it is devastating - even more so because you don't expect something clever in a film of this standard. Unfortunately, rather than end the film on a bombshell that would have been a great (albeit sad) ending, the film stretches it out for another 20 minutes to get to a very lazy, convenient "happy" ending. This really blows it for me and I would much rather have seen the film end on a really clever twist.

Overall this is a pretty dull TVM. The thriller doesn't work and the romance is unconvincing. The twist is really good but bottles it and gives the TV audience what it wants - a happy ending that doesn't stretch your brain at all.

Few performers can claim to have made two unrelated movies that make a perfect double bill; Rosanna Arquette made "Nowhere To Run" in 1993, and the following year she starred in "Nowhere To Hide." Now, she has done some good TV projects - "The Executioner's Song," "Promised A Miracle" and "Son of the Morning Star" come to mind - but this is closer to "Poison" and "I Know What You Did" on the quality scale, alas.

From the opening scene with Rosanna and Max Pomeranc (as her son) engaging in the least convincing piano miming in screen history, you know you're not in for a quality watch; the basic storyline had possibilities - a soon-to-be-divorced woman (Miss Arquette) finds out that her soon-to-be-ex wants to kill her, and goes under the protection of FBI agent Scott Bakula - but the actual movie is so spectacularly dull that it took me three tries to get through it, something no movie with Rosanna Arquette has ever required me to do. (Not even "Off The Wall.")

You don't get much in the way of action, or even emotion, though it's unusual to see an American movie actually have Vancouver play itself for once instead of standing in for various U.S. cities (though it does that here as well). Bakula's too stiff to make an impact, and though Rosanna tries hard you get the impression she doesn't care much for the script... not that you can blame her. It's not until towards the end that it remembers it's supposed to be a thriller and throws in a couple of genuinely surprising plot twists, but by then it's too little too late. Call it a missed opportunity; a good storyline ruined by bad execution.

Executive producer Stan Rogow's other credits include "Lizzie McGuire." An animated version of Rosanna Arquette supplying commentary would have enlivened this 'un no end.

Well OK, it's a made for TV movie and it was showing on Lifetime Network so with all that aside...I'm just a Bakula fan. I have a Tivo search for Bakula showings and this auto-recorded. Actually, not a bad story at all if you can tolerate the Arquette family and a too-neat wrap it up kind of ending.

I enjoyed most of the movie's progression and I agree with the last comment post that the the kid's character was as oblivious as dry toast. However one can see he wasn't the center point of the movie other than the plot point that she was a perfect mother with total dedication to her only child.

This would have made a fantastic novel if the last five minutes of the movie were stretched out over a few chapters involving a long, drawn out set up. The TVM seems to be edited down to "we've only got five minutes left so wrap this thing up quick". It was a good movie to satisfy my Scott Bakula in a romantic role fix on a slow day.

"Sarah Blake" (Rosanna Arquette) is pending a divorce from her wealthy husband, "Sam Blake" (Max Pomeranc) and in the upcoming settlement she stands to make a fortune. Obviously, her husband doesn't like the settlement and decides to take matters into his own hands. As a result, Sarah is taken into the "protective witness program" in order to escape a contract taken out on her. In charge of defending her is a special agent named "Kevin Nicholas" (Scott Bakula) who goes to great lengths to keep her completely hidden. Anyway, rather than spoil the film for those who haven't seen it I will just say that this is a made-for-television movie that has some good points and some bad points as well. For one thing, it was rather heavy on drama and light on action. But then I suppose it had to be. I liked the surprising twist towards the end but I thought the actual ending was much too abrupt and convenient. Even so, I thought both Scott Bakula and Rosanna Arquette turned in adequate performances and overall the film was somewhat entertaining. All things considered I rate it as average.