Undue Influence

The acting is great.

The plot is predictable, but it is still well executed.

Jean Smart and Patricia Richardson sharing a screen is timeless.

Thanks to a top-notch cast and wonderful acting, Undue Influence was a slightly above average miniseries back in the day.

It stars Brian Dennehy, Patricia Richardson, Richard Masur, and Jean Smart. During a terrible custody battle between Laurel and Jack Vega (Richardson and Masur), Jack's new wife is murdered, and Laurel is arrested.

Laurel insists that her brother-in-law Paul Madriani, take her case. Paul is grieving over the loss of his wife and Laurel's sister Nikki, and is determined to be there for his young daughter. But he takes the case.

Most of this plot is easy to figure out, and you keep wondering why Madrani hasn't. We find out later that he has, and for reasons made clear later, he doesn't reveal what he knows.

Dennehy as always is marvelous. I was privileged to see him on stage in Long Day's Journey. Though physically miscast, he did a beautiful job.

The powerhouse performance belongs to Richardson, a desperate woman on trial for her life and determined to have a say in her own defense.

Jean Smart is a knockout as a redhead and brings her usual strong acting chops to her role.

Worth seeing for the performances.

First off, I'm a huge fan of Brian Dennehy. Both ladies gave good performances as well as the supporting cast. And of course, Dennehy was a very interesting attorney. We are drawn into his personal life as a multi-faceted man. He is so adept at showing a honest range of emotions, personality, and character. This is a good twisty mystery. Yes, it is a longer film, but includes plenty of drama both in and our of the court room.

If you are viewing as a TV movie, I'd recommend recording if you have a recorder device to speed up your viewing pleasure (commercials). Interesting plot developments and some good ethical questions were presented. Even if you guess the guilty, you will enjoy this mystery.

Okay, since at this time there are only 2 reviews of this film and because of the specific nature of this film I felt that I really should leave a brief comment.

First off, for what it's worth, to the fellow who is all worked up about Jean Smart... Yeah, she looks okay... HUGE breasts, scrawny legs, so you call it as you see it... : ) Personally I kind of liked Patricia Richardson better. Cuter, less gamy (Yes, I think I could tell she had had work done; it looked pretty tight around the eyes...) None the less, cute in a kind of perky almost tom-boyish kind of way.

Anyway, sorry about that... Back to the film. All right, let me state right off (well, ALMOST right off) that within the first 30 minutes or so the acting and direction were SO bloody AWFUL that I took the discs out of my player and threw them in the trash cursing all the while. Because up till NOW I had yet to see any film with Brian Dennehy that I didn't like. Especially many movies where he has played either a cop or a lawyer. But THIS one... Lame, Lame, Lame... However, after I settled down a little and did a BIT more reading here on IMDb, I thought, okay the damn thing is 240 minutes long, of COURSE there's gonna be LOTS of padding at the beginning and I was curious as to what was really going on.

So, I steeled myself, took the discs BACK out of the trash and cleaned them off and continued with the movie (BTW, I had stopped when Brian Dennehy was meeting the dubiously lovely Ms. Smart in the fancy restaurant. Man, the dialog and delivery were getting SO damn clichéd and TRULY painful, that I just couldn't take it any more!) But, I did my best to try to ignore the amateurish direction, which I feel was indeed the main culprit, and just hold on to see how the plot was gonna develop.

Okay (I guess this really ISN'T very 'Short & Sweet' after all, is it; sorry about that : ) Here is the Bottom Line:

1. You have to endure the first 30-45 minutes at least, probably due to LAME direction, some amateurish acting and padded script.

2. BUT, and it's a BIG BUT like Mariah Carey's, IF you can hold out until the LAST 30-45 minutes THEN the story itself actually does indeed get fairly involving and there are a couple of decent twists.

So, that's about it; still quite sub-par overall for a film with Brian Dennehy and in my opinion probably the poorest one out of all of his. The STORY was not bad, it is just the WAY it was told could have been a LOT better...

A very beautiful lady, Jean Smart, with auburn hair is absolutely magnificent in this film and this alone is one excellent reason not to miss it ! Seriously though, This film is definitely good, as are the vast majority of films involving Brian Dennehy, whom I adore as an actor ! The plot, of the "whodunnit" type is not complicated but there is a lot of side-tracking and red herrings which have nothing to do with the truth. Some of this side-tracking, notably everything concerning the Merlo family is rather confusing and one gets the impression that it's there as padding to make the story much longer than it would have been but without any real relevance to the story itself. In spite of these plot holes and script defects, the film makes for excellent watching.

Denneyhy's daughter is really cute, and the scenes between him and here about her recently departed "Mummy" are very touching indeed, both from Dennehy and the young lady herself who acts the part very very convincingly. I had watery eyes during all these scenes.

I enjoy this sort of "courtroom-drama-made-for-tv" movie which only the USA seem capable of producing. I luckily found it issued on DVD in the UK and certainly didn't regret my purchase. I have seen the film previously on French TV under the title "Abus d'Influence".

Highly recommendable entertainnment then to be watched curled up before the fire on a cold wet and windy winter's afternoon !!