Up front, I enjoyed this movie. According to my wife, the Nora Roberts expert in our family, the writers and producers did a pretty good job of following the book's story. The actors were attractive and competent, even though Colin Egglesfield's attempt to look like Tom Cruise was rather vain. Gabrielle Anwar was her lovely and seductive self, and it was great seeing Shirley Jones on the screen again. However, there were some glaring irregularities with the production we couldn't help but notice. Granted, when adapting a novel for television, the writers and producers are under pressure to clean them up and make them politically acceptable for family viewing, especially for Lifetime and Hallmark audiences. But sometimes these efforts border on the absurd. For example, take the character of Sheriff Burke, the elected sheriff of the small Mississippi town where the story takes place. In the novel, Nora's facts are believable. The sheriff is a typical good old white boy who is married to an attractive and socially prominent white woman. But in this production, the sheriff is a black man who is married to an attractive and socially prominent white woman. I don't think the times have changed that much - certainly not in rural Mississippi. Next, have you ever looked at a scene and wondered what's wrong with this picture? There is a July 4th celebration in the story, complete with whooping and hollering and good old country music. But as you look at this scene in this production, you can't help but notice what's missing – confederate flags. Excuse me, in Mississippi those good old boys are going to wave flags, both American and most surely confederate. Finally, there's the matter of the Mississippi heat. This story takes place in the summertime in Mississippi, which is hot, humid and all around sticky. Yet the sheriff and FBI dude walk around outside in the heat with a clean shirt and tie, buttoned at the top yet, and not a spot of wetness showing through their shirts. There is also a scene where the hero and heroine are lounging romantically in front of a roaring fireplace. A roaring fireplace in Mississippi in the summertime is not romantic, it's insane! But even with these nick-picky faults, the movie was good and we recommend it highly.
