Witness to Murder: A Darrow mystery

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.

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.

Anything with Tom Cavanagh is worth the watch and we weren't let down in this one. Kimberly Williams Paisley was a great co star as well. Wendie Malick held her own as well

Predictable?...yea, probably. But come on, so what. Yea, I saw the ending coming but not exactly as screened.

Oh yea, the Hot Chocolate reference made us chuckle even thou this wasn't a HM Christmas movie.

It was definitely worth the watch...enjoy it.

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.

Hallmark used to stand for the highest of high quality programming. A Hallmark Special was something my parents always let me stay up for. However, after watching the "movie", it is a shame to see they have sunk to the lowest of lows. There's no mystery here, only bad writing, bad acting, bad storytelling, and the cheapest production values I've ever seen. I guess I'm just an old fuddie duddie but after watching this, it makes me long for the good old days of Hallmark.