Das fremde Gesicht

Just bored on a Saturday night; looking for a mystery and this I found from 2004 apparently. While not real riveting? It held my attention, mainly due to the acting of Ms. Eastwood, who I didn't realize was a pretty good actress. The story line is absolutely contemporary and scary! Bo Sevenson appears as a more menacing figure than I've seen before. Setting of ranchland was peaceful and there were a few twists but invariably, the plot is easy to figure out halfway through. Is that good? Is that bad? I don't think EITHER. It's always a case of well you know it but you still want to see it played out. I think the directing was good but I don't think Margot Kidder (RIP) held a very convincing role.

Whoever wrote this garbage should be burned alive ... wondering why it was necessary to crap up the script with the psycho creep stalker and killer .. it should have been another story ... perhaps the rest of the story would have flowed better ... the fact that it was mostly filmed in nowhere canada made it less believable as well ... i give it credit for not having some architect in the script for these made for tv movies ... i started groaning about halfway through because it was dragging ... where was the rcmp ?

'I'll Be Seeing You' is another low budget Canadian production based on the Mary Higgins Clark novel (although she receives no writing credit for this one). It is the story of a strange series of events, and probably the result of writers attempting to squeeze too much drama into one story. It is the standard made-for-TV fare, with low budget, zero glamour, and lots of bad acting. Had it been on CBS ten or fifteen years ago, this would be a rerun on the Lifetime TV network.

A young woman (Alison Eastwood), Patricia, is asked by police at the city morgue to identify the body of a young woman who looks like her. Working with detectives (you know they're detectives because they're wearing trenchcoats!) to trace the identity of the killer, they soon suspect the murder was committed by her father who has mysteriously gone missing and meanwhile, doubting their suspicions, Patricia does her own investigations which leads to a scheme involving the father's scheming coworkers at a fertility clinic, a family from a double-life, and a subplot involving a psycho stalker obsessed with her. And it becomes so outrageous, part of the mystery is solved by a psychic assigned by the police. And yet, she still manages to find time to chit chat with her mother (who was clearly too young for the part), ride horses in the countryside, and carry on a love story with well-meaning guy who is conveniently always right on time. There is, as another viewer has already noted, lots of terrible acting (like the pregnant girl's confession scene, or the numerous times the villains hold their victims at gunpoint and then go on and on yaking about their motives with enough time for--gasp!--the cops or someone else to show up and intervene). A story of this much drama at least needed a more powerful sense of direction, acting, and script. This was just much too lightweight.

I don't know how it fares compared to other films in the Mary Higgins Clark mystery collection, but I will say that by itself, it was mostly laughable nonsense.

One would think that an actress with the last name Eastwood could muster up a half-decent performance.

Ms. Eastwood single-handedly ruined what could have been a breezy Saturday past time. I am a major fan of Mary Higgins Clark's books. However, I have come to terms with the fact that if you've seen one of her books-turned-movies you know what to expect: a cartoonish villain, a limp-acting leading lady, and a bunch of peripheral characters you won't care what happens to one way or another. Still this was dragged to the gutter by possibly the worst acting I've seen on this side of the Twilight saga.

Mary Higgins Clark writes mysteries that are entertaining, fast reads. She's no Agatha Christie, but she's prolific and when you pick up one of her books, you know what you're getting.

It's the same with TV versions of her many stories. Unfortunately, when you flip your remote to one of them, you also know what you're getting: a badly acted, badly directed, slow-moving story that is good for one thing - helping you get to sleep.

Alison Eastwood apparently decided to become an actress because she was born of two acting parents. Sorry, but that just isn't good enough. She inherited no talent and worse than that, no presence. Here she plays a young woman, Patricia Collins, whose double is murdered. The victim had her name and address in her pocket, but Patricia had never met her. This story is folded into the death of Patricia's father, whose body was never found. Mysterious occurrences point to him still being alive. When Patricia mentions her dad's name at a fertility clinic with whom her father did business, one of the scientists there becomes frightened and is later murdered. Patricia tries to unravel what's going on. It's not hard to figure out, because in these movies, the criminal's bad acting telegraphs his/her identity early on.

By far, the best performance in the film comes from Margot Kidder who comes off like Helen Mirren here, the rest of them are so bad. The always likable Kidder gives an energetic performance with honest emotion. Also, the final scenes of the film are very good.

With better casting and a quicker pace, this would have been an okay movie. Patricia as played by Eastwood doesn't come off as smart enough to figure this whole thing out.

Great to see Kidder, if you can stay awake long enough.