Bait

(2002) Bait MYSTERY THRILLER

It opens with a mother Pam Raeburn (Sheila Hancock) being stuck on the middle of the road in her Volvo with her adult daughter, Stephanie Raeburn (Rachael Stirling). And almost rear ending them is Jack Blake (John Hurt), the first thing he says as soon as he sees Stephanie on the passenger's window is Anne! And viewers don't quite know what he was talking about until later we find out that Anne was his daughter, until she ended up missing. That Jack was using both Pam and her daughter Steph to solve the whereabouts of her daughter as "bait"- hence the title. Jack manages to manipulate the situation by letting both of them stay at his cottage rent free. In exchange for their stay rent free, Steph would assist Jack's side job as a maintenance man to two other properties we find out Steph has some contracting woodworking experience and we're introduced to to other characters as well. A young married couple of Alfred (Jonathan Firth) and Millicent (Angeline Ball) White and a young bachelor, Vincent.

Somewhat of a low caliber mystery we've seen more than a dozen times from "Masterpiece Theatre" that used to be shown on PBS. Which if watched enough British mysteries since with the few characters involved, viewers should be able to figure it out who the culprit might be way before the movie is even over.

It's hard to know what's more annoying about this made-for-TV film - the extremely silly plot or the predictable, formulaic characters. John Hurt's talents are utterly wasted. However, the lovely Rachael Stirling shines through with her usual charm and charisma, and her fans won't be disappointed.

I tried hard to like this because I liked the players, but the dreadful script, the annoying characters and the deathly depressing location shooting made it very hard work. I stuck around for the occasional glimpses of the beautiful face of 'Millicent' but they were too few and the annoyances of every other aspect of this TV flick were too many. The movie was made in 2002 but you get the feel that it was actually made in the mid seventies. Every clichéd line ever written ('Oh, you mustn't think like that!' or 'Money? This isn't about money?') is mercilessly played out here. Lot's of outrageously unreal scenes and some fools playing detective. John Hurt is more over the top than Dustin Hoffman.