The Secret of Hidden Lake

This movie blends moderate terror with a first class mystery. Rena Sofer does a masterful job of playing the gutsy Maggie, who by turns metaphorically cavalierly prods rattlesnakes and then retreats in terror. She is an interesting and lovable character. She is not just mindless fodder for mayhem. I found myself shouting directions at the screen for her to take more caution.

The movie reminds me of Semilla's Sense Of Snow, in that you don't know whom you can trust. Every kindly action becomes suspect. The various actors manage to beautifully project simultaneous kindness and possible hidden malice.

It has a complex plot ending worthy of Ruth Rendell.

The movie is realistic. Most of Maggie's sleuthing actions lead nowhere. She has no magical powers of deduction. The villains are people you might find in the newspaper.

To me the movie appeared to be shot in BC Canada, simulating Colorado in the USA. The beautiful forests, and diffused overcast light, are an ever-present backdrop.

Another run of the mill daytime one this, not much to say on it. Plenty of suspense, you're never too sure where the plot is heading (which is a good and bad thing). The core parts of the story you can peg in the first twenty minutes & it takes too long to get to the end. The actress playing Maggie puts in a top performance, though with some clichéd parts to her role (opening the front door at night, picking up the mail without shutting it). The villain Jack (Snr) was underused & the ending a bit of a rush-job with ends left untied. Some odd characters make up the rest of the film,though may be realistic for that part of the world - which incidentallyis something else in the films favour - some awesome scenery & backdrops.

Worth a watch, underrated at 5/10 but fairly predictable & slightly long.

Maggie returns home to hidden lake after learning her father has been severely injured in a hunting accident. She begins to realise it was not accident that caused his injury.

Everyone in the town becomes a suspect and Maggie struggles to find help from anyone to uncover what really happened

I had guessed 'who dunnit' quite early on.

It was an OK movie, but a lot of the characters I disliked!I Can understand why Maggie left when she was old enough!

I felt that it dragged on a bit and then the ending finished quite abruptly, but don't let that put you off, it is worth a watch on a day when there is nothing else on! On a positive note, the acting was believable

The title of this film captured my interest and there is a scene where a little girl goes out with her dad hunting in the woods near Hidden Lake and he expects his daughter to hit the target immediately. The little girl finds eagle feathers and it is from that point on that the story goes down all kinds of different paths and the little girl becomes a mature woman who leaves Chicago to visit her dad. The little girl is Rena Sofer,(Maggie Dolan),"March",'01 who really is the star of this TV film and sort of carries the film on her back through out almost every scene. The story disappointed me in many ways and it seemed to go on and on like a Merry-go-Round.

At the start of the movie, everything is brown or army green. I'm not sure if with the green it could be referred to as sepia tone.

Maggie and her father Frank have gone hunting on Buck Mountain near Hidden Lake, Colorado. Maggie is not doing too well, so she goes off by herself. A man grabs her and threatens to kill everyone she loves if she says anything.

20 years later, Maggie is working in Chicago, helping people who are having trouble with (for example) their landlords or with immigration. She gets a call that her father has been shot, apparently while hunting, and is in critical condition.

At the hospital, Maggie meets Alice, who raised her after her mother died and served as her father's housekeeper after that. Alice criticizes Maggie for leaving town and says she shouldn't have been so surprised at all the changes.

Frank recently retired after 23 years as sheriff. The Herald newspaper was taken over by Lorango, a developer that has made lots of changes in the process of turning the area into a tourist attraction. Not everyone was pleased with the changes, and Frank sided with the protesters. Now the newspaper wants to hurt his reputation, but Maggie doesn't believe her father would do anything wrong, and neither does his long-time friend Judge Landers. The current sheriff, a woman, also believes in Frank.

Maggie has a number of imaginary conversations with her father where he is in uniform, at home, in her vehicle, and at the hospital. Some of the conversations actually might have taken places several years earlier; for example, Frank wishes his daughter would stay in town because she can still use her knowledge to help people there.

Sam was Maggie's ex-boyfriend, and he now runs the diner. Two characters are named Jack Ford--an abusive father and his mechanic son.

Eventually, the truth comes out.

Most of the leading actors here do a good job, but I found four performances particularly impressive--as Frank, as Alice, as Judge Landers, and as Jack Ford Sr.

It's a pretty good mystery, with occasional violence but nothing too bad.