Un jour de chance

As Rifftrax put it, "Do you find episodes of Matlock too fast-paced and interesting?" Then this tv movie is for you! If you enjoy hate-watching movies this is a great one for the entirely predictable plot, stilted acting, terrible background music and the same locations featured over and over.

I'm a fan of Mary Higgins Clark. She is a fantastic mystery novelist and I have all her books. I was expecting a great movie but was deceived. With such an excellent plot the director had all the elements to create a marvelous piece of art but the direction was pretty poor. Even the acting was just okay. Amanda Donahue is a first class actress but she seems to be out of place. The conversation held by the characters didn't sound true to me. I recommend Pretend you don't see her,another Mary Higgins Clark novel, which is of a better quality. The fact that this is made for television is not an excuse for not having made a good movie. Many of my favorite movies have been made for television and they are flawless. Example: Raid on Entebbe, which by the way, I want to buy and has not been made for sale.

Lucky Day comes across as your standard detective mystery. They show a murder, an amateur sleuth and conveniently point the finger at a likely suspect. Ultimately it turns out that the person you least expect is the guilty party because the movie gave them close to no screen time. Lucky Day manages to keep the suspense and intrigue going till the end. I enjoyed the simplicity of this film, no bells and whistles. We get a cut and dried story. It is interesting and sticks to the facts to drive the whole story. The performances are average at best and while it is not super convincing, it gets the job done. I enjoyed it. If you are after a simple and easy to watch mystery then this will be good.

The actions by the detectives involved don't seem to meet proper procedures in fact detective marinello couldn't detect crap on his upper lip ... detectives that make bad assumptions are a dime a dozen so in that regard this wasn't a disappointment ... also since the husband was such a good friend of the messenger, why didn't he help his wife ... too many red flags not to recognize the culprit early on so it was not surprise by the time it was uncovered ... that can hardly be called a mystery ...

I have read some of Mary Higgins Clark's books and at best they are mediocre to start with. It would be unimaginable to mention her name in the same breath as the likes of classic mystery authors such as Christie or Le Carre. Having said that, this film really takes the biscuit. It is filmed like an Australian/American soap opera with the 'actors' responding to anything that happens or is said to them with a gasp, a sigh and a long look into the distance before delivering a dry and unbelievable reply. The 'star' is the same actress that rose to a short lived part in the UK soap opera Emmerdale...and she was actually more believable in that. I warn you... if you have some paint to watch dry... do that. My girlfriend described it as 'Days of our lives', with less talent than the cast of Friends.