Primal Doubt

I caught this on Sky One the other day and initially started watching to see how the lovely Janine Turner looks these days (still scrumptious!) and kept watching to see how things would turn out.

She is a wealthy Romance Novelist and her Husband is a film Producer, played by Costas Mandylor - looking a bit heavy compared to his usual well built look. She is bored with her Marriage and lifestyle and meets a guy online at a dating site.

I don't want to give anything away suffice to say it is a "Thriller" and is better than a lot of these made for TV films but certainly no masterpiece.

If you are into Thrillers and happen to see this scheduled it will be worth checking out.

For certainly she looks long in the tooth in this film. Janine Turner is constantly in over the hill make-up you wonder what her real face looks like. Even when sleeping, getting up in the morning, taking a bath - always the makeup. Too much eye shadow and mascara make her eyes look like a raccoon. And constantly when she cries, and that is often, it runs and she looks like she has two black eyes. Then there's the blush and that lip gloss. In bed? What must her pillow look like in the morning? And what her poor husband, played well by Costas Mandylor, must do about what smears on him when she kisses him. It's like kissing a wet oil painting.

The story is obvious and performances so so. Maeve Quinlan, also in loads of makeup plays the best friend; Jamie Rose, in low cut dresses, plays her doctor and Amanda Fuller, the only natural looking female in the bunch plays the daughter. It seems Mr. Mandylor is surrounded by women with tons of makeup and low cleavage dresses. Why is it that all these dames have to show their breasts? Is anything new now a days? I mean doesn't acting also enter their minds? If they can manage to stop wearing push-up bras and tight clothes. This is a poor R rated example of the typical female on LMN. Once in a blue moon you get real talent and looks and less sex.

The acting was atrocious! From decent actors. I don't know what happened. The story could have been good but it doesn't matter because the acting was so bad. It was like a watching one of those cheap movies where you have never heard of any of the actors, not a one, and they made it in someone's grandma's house. It's like that. Atrocious. Lol.

This movie is really Lifetime cheap. It may've started out with a great premise, but quickly demotes itself to shoddy soap opera.

It is not at all completely unwatchable though. Janine Turner, despite some previous reviews of her aging, is perfectly fine for the role. And does her best with the material, as does Costas Mandylor. But, as you watch movies like this, it reminds you that like professional athletes, sometimes you see a shadow of their greatness and just feel a bit sorry that the game has moved on without them.

Look, it's not easy making a movie. But you have a decent cast. My guess is that the director or producer seems to have a very bad grasp of the English language. The dialogue is really stilted. At some point (as I've been on set) it seems they may've even been given line readings. It's that stiff.

A poor who-dun-it.

This film was your typical murder mystery film. It had some twists and turns, but was also pretty predictable. I had my suspects narrowed down to 2 people and one of them did turn out to be the killer. The film tries half-heartedly to throw you off throughout the film by suggesting other possible killers but I just didn't find them believable. I will say that I was surprised on who was murdered initially, because I would have thought it was going to be someone else from the description and opening scene of the film. I watched this film because I have been a fan of Costas Mandylor in other films mainly the Saw series, Sinners & Saints, and Sub Zero. I think Costas does an excellent acting job in this film as well. I also think the cast was fair for the most part. However, I do think that Janine overacted. The rest of the cast was believable. The writing in the film itself was not done well. It was a good premise and I would watch it again sometime on a boring afternoon, but I don't see it being one of my favorites.