The Deadly Look of Love

Nutjob (Ladd) forces herself on a horny guy (Spano) and kills his wife when he does not return her love. And all the jilted women of the universe cheer when he's convicted of the crime. Yes, jilted women have another cheesecake while LIFETIME television brings you a twisted version of reality. It doesn't matter if the man wasn't guilty -- WOMAN empowerment is more important than truth and justice. Send him to jail for cheating.

My mother was watching this when I visited her recently. The pathetic writer made up new laws for the trial lawyers. Allowing the murderer's lawyer to completely disregard reality.

A judge who was asleep during law school, a man perfectly framed by what was obviously a nut case female. The Bad Man cheated on her

--- Ohhhh ---

Isn't that a good enough reason for Nutjob to KILL HIS wife.

Just a foolish chick flick, the kind real people avoid like the plague. This is only for malcontents who sit on their bums feeding their face with cheesecake because they can't get dates.

.... may seem far fetched.... but there really was a real life story.. of a man who had an affair with a woman, who found out where he and his new wife were staying,, and she killed the wife,, making it look like a murder rape.......

in her delusion she had told everyone that the man had asked her to marry him.. so she quit her job in Wisconsin... and moved to Minnesota..........

last I heard she was in a mental institution, Security Prison....

she was still wearing the "engagement ring." that she has purchased for herself... and had told everyone that he had bought it for her.

The events took place in a small town in Wisconsin,,,,,,, and the murder happened in Minnesota......

There even was a feature story in "People" magazine... Spring of 1988, I want to say on Page 39. I remember this as I was in college at the time,, and a colleague of mine had met the individual in the Security Hospital....

Very interesting and mysterious movie. Strange mood. I'm not quite clear about the ending. Who actually did the killing? It's quite subtle, psychologically. The young lady did have some power. Women who are slightly "off" can be appealing.

It's not clear to me what the other reviewers had against the movie. We are brought into a young lady's fantasy world. It is not the kind of fantasy we ordinarily see in movies--obviously not a "feminist" theme. But I'm sure there are women that possess this mystical sense of romance, as well as confidence that they can "make a man happy."

It any case, movies are a fantasy--Americans take them so seriously as if they are supposed to equate with reality.

I happened upon this flick on a rainy Sunday, intending to tune-in to something else. Out of curiosity, I accessed the comments here, and found myself watching it to the end. I really didn't do so with intent -- this was one of those movies where you're "fascinated," and watch it for "another couple of minutes," until you finally just watch to the end. And the indictment of it in most of these comments made it more fascinating to view. The one comment where the person really liked it seems to be solely as a result of liking Ladd and Spano, and their earlier roles. But great isn't anywhere to be found anywhere here - story, performances, and particularly the absurd courtroom hi-jinks. We all know that Perry Mason (before Raymond Burr passed the 300-lb. mark), and Ben Matlock, are granted some leeway in cavorting around the courtroom, instead of being boringly confined to a lectern. And Matlock is especially granted the privilege of entering exhibits often by simply going to the jury and showing them, before the judge and prosecutor have even been informed of, or shown, them. No real-life judge or prosecutor would stand for this.

Both Perry and Ben almost always ended the proceedings by wringing a confession of the real killer. Actually Perry nearly always did this, but often Matlock would simply present overwhelming evidence of the true culprit, pronounce it "reasonable doubt," and then leave it to the cops and prosecutors to proceed against the guilty party - sometimes on-camera, sometimes presumed at the end of the show.

But that said, Holland Taylor's histrionics and the amount of leeway afforded her, in the courtroom portion of this story, made the actions of Matlock/Mason more-closely resemble the slow, often boring detail such as seen on Court TV and in real-life courtrooms.

Every character in this presentation was either insipid, unsympathetic, obnoxious, boring, improbable - or some combination of two or more of these.

The ending was the most banal, absurd, even silly conclusion possible - but again, fascinating because of this. Ladd and Spano are attractive individuals, and t.v. movies would appear their best forte - probably best in 2nd-lead (probably better if "3rd-") roles, even in this venue. Taylor could be cast as the aunt or mother of one of them. Give this one 1 star for the story/performances, and 3 additional for the fascination factor.

It's not a cinematic masterpiece or anything, but it was enjoyable. I didn't find it to be overly predictable, and towards the third act, I wondered which way things would go. Sure, some aspects were exaggerated, like the courtroom theatrics-- but Holland Taylor brought a great performance into this lower-budget film. The main actress did a pretty good job as well.