Witness to Murder: A Darrow mystery

Coming into this particular movie, I was a fan of Darrow Mysteries. Tom Cavanaugh usually makes such a good quirky character. And usually he and Williams-Paisley play well off each other. Not in this one.

There are so many things wrong with the story I don't have the patience to list them. Not the least of these is the developing romance where the characters also act like Middle Schoolers. The court scenes come off like the juvenile's take on a Perry Mason episode.

Given the writing, it is hard to judge the acting or the directing, but I tend to think the directing isn't much better.

The mystery has it's good moments, but it's hard to appreciate them given everything else.

We watched this as much because it has Tom Cavanagh and Kimberly Williams as for any reason. Both attorneys, he a prosecutor in the DA's office, she working for a firm. And they might be dating, it is hard to tell. As Hallmark scripts tend to go, they end up on opposite sides of a murder case.

For economy of time, and to avoid boring viewers, the courtroom scenes are highly compressed versions of what might really go on in court. But hey, it's a Hallmark movie. It is an entertaining movie and not everything is resolved until the penultimate scene.

We watched it at home on DVD from our public library.

OK, I (fortunately) only caught the last half of this "movie". I was surfing through and saw Wendie Malick, and stopped to watch. Then I made the mistake of leaving the sound on.

I have seen the main three leads in many other shows, so I know they do know how to act.

That leaves the "writer" and "director", if they can really be described as such.

The worst was the writing. It is like the writer has heard a few commercials for other much better lawyer shows, and thought they knew how to write a courtroom drama. Hint, next time, watch the entire show, you might learn how a courtroom drama should be written.

The worst example - When the prosecutor calls the police lieutenant as a witness to supposedly describe the trajectory of the bullets, the lieutenant says only a few words, and the defense does no cross examination. This should have been a crucial part of the case, and it was nothing.

Three stars only because they hired Wendie Malick, and at least gave her some decent lines. Otherwise, one star or less.

No spoilers here, it is hard to spoil something so badly written.

6/10 - a worthwhile addition to the captivating legal/mystery Darrow & Darrow franchise

Kimberly Williams-Paisley and her mother Wendy Malick are leaving a meeting when while getting into their vehicle they see someone from a car firing a weapon at the other attorney they were meeting with. The other attorney is wounded and his paralegal/chauffeur is killed.

A woman the Darrows know is the chief , but they don't believe it for a second and they become her defense lawyers. Complicating things further is that prosecutor Tom Cavanaugh and Williams-Paisley are starting to date. A little reference to the classic Tracy/Hepburn comedy Adam's Rib.

I have to tell you I had this one figured almost immediately and I think any decent mystery buff will figure it faster than I did.

Still good entertainment value though.