Die Spur der Teufelsträne

This is a decent although unremarkable thriller in which the FBI recruits an ex-agent who is an expert in verifying and examining documents. He has a lot of personal issues including an ex-wife who wants the kids and a son who is still suffering the after-effects of being terrorized by a murderer he had put in prison several years before.

Although director Norma Bailey does a decent job in all departments and the actors handle their roles competently, the movie itself soon falls into fairly predictable patterns and scenes and the potentially interesting idea of showing how the analysis of documents and profiling of killers actually works is reduced to a few gadgets and flashes of insight. Instead we are distracted by family drama.

I cannot tell if the poverty in the script is due to Jeffrey Deaver's novel or to Ron Hutchinson's adaptation. I am not familiar with Mr. Deaver's works and the two other movies I have seen written by Mr. Hutchinson -- who also co-produced this TV-movie -- have not been very interesting, so I suspect it is not Mr. Deaver's responsibility. However, whoever is responsible, unless you are a fan of the genre, you can give this a miss.

Occasionally, a movie comes along that combines several positive qualities, leading to only one conclusion: this is a very good film. Such is the case with "The Devil's Teardrop" (2010). First off, Tom Everett Scott of high acclaim for such performances as the enthusiastic drummer in "That Thing You Do" stars as a highly specialized/talented forensic analyst and work-from-home single dad of 2 grade-school children, being sought out to assist the FBI on a shoot-em-up ransom scheme by a domestic terrorist in Washington DC.

No one can say Scott doesn't fully carry this movie, start to finish, with his convincing charm and top-notch portrayal of a dedicated father helping his young son work through a trauma from the recent past, involving a gun-toting home invader that Scott"s character Kincaid fights with and kills right in their home. Scott does a magnificent job and rises as the primary quality that makes this a good film.

Natasha Henstridge as FBI Lead Agent Margaret Lukas also does a fine job seeking the terrorist while working with positive chemistry with Kincaid. So too Kincaid's ex-wife Joan, well played by Rena Sofer, a fine acting job as a loving mother who has fully recovered after 2 years from alcohol-related emotional trauma and is now engaged to be married and seeking full custody of the 2 kids. So there's family drama in this film, genuine efforts to remain civilized for the best interests of the children - how's that for something different in our film world of dysfunction, anger-ridden self-centered adults using kids as pawns instead of guarding them as impressionable young human beings?

Very nice cinematography in the DC area; a pleasing soundtrack with complementary music and editing by Ron Wisman to stitch a strong storyline together seamlessly, and you've got a nice piece of filmmaking, effectively directed by Norma Bailey.

Make no mistake: this is a wholesome Hallmark-Type, Lifetime-Styled movie with the ultimate goal of presenting functional adults who care more for the children than anything else. What a concept, huh? And not a single cuss word in the entire film. What a concept, huh?

The strange thing is being a bad movie, with awful dialogue, with very predictable twist, it is not easy to admit than it is real bad. In my case, for the simpathy for Tom Everett Scott and for the nice subplot of custody. For fans, I suppose, it can be the perfect film. But, sure, an easy thriller/ policier can be a reasonable definition.

Well, got to tell you why:

1) Their screenplays always with very bad dialog, making every character's speaking and talking a bit of unreal, like recited from memory, and everybody speaking with pure American English without any accent. Nobody got any background accent like everybody grew up in the same house, same school, same neighborhood, same area, same city and same State.

2) Horrible nonsensical sound track. The background music in every movie alwayssounded like the same. Lot of time the sound track started without anynecessity and stopped abruptly without any reason.

3) The funny thing is every role in the Lifetime movies is just so polite and sounds like well educated.

4) The female characters are always played by pretty women, you just can't find any ugly ones, even the young kids are pretty.

5) Very lame directing.

This movie is no exception. You might get brain tumor if you force yourself to keep watching it, just by listening to the pure American English without any accent by everybody would drive you nuts.

"He will kill again at 12 each day for the next 2 days. I am wanting 20 million in cash." When a man known only as "The Digger" opens fire in a train station many are left dead. The only clue the FBI has is a hand written letter with demands on it. Agent Margurete (Henstridge) needs help analyzing it and the best is retired specialist Kincaid (Scott). I was a little weary of this at the outset. The actors I like, but it is a "Lifetime" movie, and that kinda scared me. After about 10 min I was hooked and was really shocked at how good this movie was. Good acting and good story telling made this one tense all the way through. Not only is it one of the best "Lifetime" movies I have seen, it's also one of the better movies coming out this week. Without trying to give anything away, this is also the first "Lifetime" movie I have seen where the man is portrayed as a good guy. Way to go. The only complaint I had is the ending, but being the type of movie this is it is to be expected. Just a little too anti-climatic for my liking. Other then that I really enjoyed this. Overall, very entertaining and tense, a very good choice. I give it a B+.

Would I watch it again? - I might, to catch clues I may have missed.

*Also try - Lies In Plain Sight & The Zodiac