Meurtre à l'esprit

The only redemptive feature of this made-for-TV movie is the fact that it contains a performance by Ellen Burstyn. It is sad to see that talented, Academy Award winning former superstar reduced to doing trash like A Deadly Vision (or Murder in Mind, depending). It features a hokey, predictable, overdone plot and laughable writing. Even Ms. Burstyn can't save this sinking ship. Watch it only if you are a diehard Kristin Davis fan, but this is far from her best work.

Kristin Davis plays a psychic with visions of crimes they and Matthew Settle plays a cop who fancies her. They make a cute couple. The cast is surprisingly good with Ellen Burstyn as her religious mom. Even Peter Boyle plays a Detective. They don't cast TV crime shows like this anymore.

Worth a watch.

The highlight of this movie is Ellen Burstyn's role as a fire-and-brimstone mom who preaches the evils of "fornication" to her daughter, who she's constantly accusing of sleeping with the detective. Kristin Davis, however, comes across as a whiny psychic whose powers are dubious, though the movie is supposedly about said powers. Peter Niven, the cute son of David Niven, plays wimpy well enough here to make you wonder if he's actually that wimpy in real life.

I wouldn't say it was anything special, but this movie was entertaining as well as suspenseful, and (thankfully) didn't overdo it with violence and gory scenes, despite its subject matter. It goes to show you that subtlety is often best.

Kristen Davis (in her pre-"Sex and the City" days) did a good job as waitress with psychic powers, as did Matthew Settle as the love interest/only cop to believe in her abilities. There are two famous faces here: Peter Boyle (famous as the title monster in "Young Frankenstein" and later for the character of Frank in "Everybody Loves Raymond") as the tough policeman with no time for psychic nonsense, and Ellen Burston, with a long list of movie/TV credits, who plays the overly zealous Catholic mom.

Worth watching.