Bonnie, a real estate agent, gets a call from Joan, the ex-wife of her husband Ross. Joan drinks and has had problems coping with life for years (she had a daughter who drowned because she left the girl for just a minute). But Joan claims Bonnie and her 6-year-old daughter Amanda are in danger, so Bonnie reluctantly closes down her open house and rushes to Joan's aid. Joan is dead, apparently murdered.
Joan and Ross have two teenagers, son Sam and daughter Lauren. Sam doesn't seem to be grieving, although he has turned bitter over his mother's resistance to contact between her children and Ross. So it's hard to tell with Sam. Lauren isn't much better off.
Who killed Joan? One suspect is Bonnie's brother Nick, who is out of prison and living with their widowed father, who has never met his granddaughter because Bonnie is mad at her father for some reason.
Ross is a TV news anchor, and he seems awfully chummy with co-anchor Maria. He and Bonnie don't seem to have the best marriage.
Bonnie calls her best friend Diana, a lawyer, for advice.
As the investigation gets under way, Bonnie tries to patch things up with her father and brother, and she learns to be a mother to the two teens, who are having a hard time adjusting to their new situation. Making things harder is Sam's 6-foot python--which is not even full-grown. The snake doesn't seem to have a real purpose.
There's nothing that special here. I suppose it's an interesting enough mystery, but by the end I wasn't sure I knew who did what. Some suspicious things were going on, but I didn't feel satisfied.
Brooklynn Proulx is adorable. I suppose she's the best thing about the movie. But kids her age shouldn't be watching this. If anyone else was any good, maybe Landon Liboiron as the brooding Sam. Actually, in their brief roles, Larry Austin as the minister and Samantha Kaine as Bonnie's doctor.
Several flirtatious women added some comedy, but I could never keep up with which one was which.
I suppose this was okay.
