The Stepson

Ninety-five percent of this movie has the makings of an entertaining thriller that could have held its own on the theater circuit. Once the villain is identified, tension slowly builds toward a highly anticipated climax. But suddenly, the nail-biting script goes terribly wrong and we are dumbfounded as the credits begin to roll. The reason for this just HAS to be that the original story was edited for TV. It seems fairly obvious that the producers ran out of time and decided to halt the excellent story-line and leave viewers wondering how the so-called "ending" could be possible. My wife and I were stunned and insulted .. enough to make me rush here and vent my anger. It's film-making like this that gives Canadian movies a bad name.

I doubt that I'd want to watch this again, but it's better than some similar movies I've seen and packs some suspense into its approximately 90 minute run time. The performances - especially, I thought, from Christina Cox and Adam Beach - were a tiny bit dry. Cox played Donna - a woman who works at a local hospice helping those who are about to die who suddenly finds herself widowed when her husband is killed in a hit and run. Beach plays her friend Josh from work who wants to help her through her grief, but finds himself blocked by her formerly estranged stepson Kevin (Jon McLaren) who suddenly appears on the scene without warning and begins to take over.

McLaren's performance as Josh was a creepy one, as befits this kind of movie. He's up to something. We know that from the beginning, but as the story unfolds there are surprises along the way, and you can never really be sure until the end how much of what Kevin tells Donna is true and how much he's making up.

There were some plot issues that bugged me here. First is the typical issue I have with so many Canadian movies - why does this have to be set in a U.S. city? I know - they figure they're more likely to get it on TV in the U.S. if it's set in Philadelphia, because Americans apparently won't watch a movie set in Toronto or Montreal or Vancouver. Classic Canadian inferiority complex in my opinion. That aside, some parts of the story bugged me. A lot of Kevin's plan is based on Donna spraining her ankle and therefore not being able to escape the house. OK. I can see that he could rig the basement stair to collapse underneath her, but there's no guarantee that she'll hurt her ankle so badly that she wouldn't be able to run once she figures out that something's up. I was a bit dismayed at the apparent reconciliation between Donna and her mother-in-law at the movie's end. That was too easy. And here's my favourite line of the movie. The lawyer dealing with her husband's estate is murdered, and this is how it's reported on the TV news: "the body was found in the car with a bullet wound to the head. Police suspect foul play." They "suspect" foul play? Hmmm. Bullet wound to the head; no gun in the car, so no suicide. But they only "suspect" foul play? Good to know the Philadelphia police are on the ball!

This isn't bad. It's a stereotypical time waster. It's not the greatest chiller around, but it will pass 90 minutes.

This is once more a film with leading men having it way over leading ladies in looks acting and all round pleasure to look at. Again, our so called leading lady pries and snoops and is in everybody's face and we're supposed to feel sorry for her. Parading around in her low cut blouses with cleavage showing and hair falling in her face we are supposed to I guess think she's attractive. Is that the symbol of looking good on LMN, low cut blouses and tight pants? No brains? All just show? Throwing her down the steps was best part of movie. And the ending was neat with stepson still on the loose, knowing he'll eventually do her in, we hope. Christina Cox as the so called victim was just awful to look at. But the two leading men, Chris Potter and Jon McLauren made up for that. Why is it that LMN always choose handsome men and dowdy women? In almost all of their films, the women suck the big one. They have this stupid long hair covering half their face, bosoms popping out of their shirts and being snoopy bitchy women. And we are to believe these helpless females suddenly near the end can knee the guy in the crotch and throw them over their shoulder? A bit far fetched in this viewer's eyes. Why can't the guy knee the female in the groin for a change? I give this 3 stars for Potter, McLauren and Janet Rice who, except for her last line to Cox about forgiveness, does a damn good job.