The Dancing Detective: A Deadly Tango

I had been looking forward to this movie and sadly my wait wasn't worthwhile. Great leads, good chemistry and acting, beautiful scenery, however none of this could save a dreadful script. Weak from the first minute.

You take someone who supposedly is not a dancer and without any real lessons or hours of practicing turns into a top-notch dancer. Really? As for the ridiculous car/scooter chase around the streets of Malta, words truly do fail me.

As a longtime fan of Hallmark and your Mysteries this one is a real BIG loser and I sincerely hope you are not planning on making this into a series. Put you time, effort and money into something with a lot more substance that this. Thank you.

Constance Bailey (Lacey Chabert) is a no-nonsense detective who prefers to work alone. When a high-profile CEO is murdered on the eve of his company's corporate event in Malta - a high stakes ballroom competition between senior executives - Detective Bailey is sent undercover as one of the contestants. The only problem? She can't dance. To convincingly compete, she must team up with charismatic and free-spirited performer Sebastian Moore( Will Kemp). But with a killer on the loose and a growing list of suspects, it's going to take more than a little fancy footwork to solve this case.

The mystery elements are simplistic, a little lacking in intrigue and you are likely to work out who the culprit is, however I found this quite fun to watch, mainly due to the Malta location, Lacey Chabert-charming as ever - and her chemistry with Will Kemp, and the old time classic film feel. It could have been stronger with the mystery and the characterisation, but it's enjoyable and the combination of Ballroom and mystery is a good idea.

Maybe it's the British accent and dancer's.confidence but I really like Will Kemp in Hallmark movies. I also like Lacey Chabert a lot and generally like the movies in which she stars.

But they were not well served by this mystery - if you can call it that. I did like really cute clever bit of calling him names of other detectives which added to the their banter as well the beautiful black and white dancing sequence. However I fail to see how a Dancing Detective can really continue to be a thing. It really was a waste of the lovely Malta setting. So to meet the IMDB required characters I will say that that I loved the characters but the mystery not so much but will continue to watch Hallmark movies with Will Kemp and Lacey Chabert.

High profile CEO Mark Aston is poisoned in Malta. He's the brother of a Senator who insists on sending his own investigator. In Lorimar Cove, New York, detective Constance Bailey (Lacey Chabert) is obsessive and likes to work alone. She gets sent to Malta. She is forced to go undercover in a dance competition, but she can't dance. Her dance partner is arrogant teacher Sebastian Moore (Will Kemp) and they are pretending to be married.

The setup is way too clunky. The heart of the movie is Chabert and Kemp's chemistry. It's the classic 'she's frustrated and grows in love with him'. Chabert is always lovely. Kemp has the nice combination of infuriating and endearing. They are good together. That's half the battle with any Hallmark movie. It's too bad that the other half isn't that good. The writing definitely needs help. This is much more about seeing a non-dancing Chabert trying to dance. It's her own Dancing with the Stars.

Hallmark seems insistent on inexplicably killing all of its successful mystery series and replacing them with mediocre replacements. This latest iteration features Lacey Chabert playing a police detective and Will Kemp playing a dance teacher/actor. They fake being married to solve a murder case in Malta.

First off, the production value of this movie was terrific. It's also nice to see new faces both in front of and behind the camera. I love that both Lacey and Will were EPs on this because it felt like a true partnership in solving the mystery and both characters were equally important. Oftentimes these mysteries only have the female lead as the EP and the story tends to be focused on her with the male lead as supporting. That was not the case here. Lacey and Will also have great chemistry and I liked all the Easter eggs of mentioning other tv detectives. And Will finally gets to use his own accent.

The mystery itself was not very interesting or well developed and I figured out who the murderer was in the first 10 minutes. Also, nobody in 2023 has a paper copy of a boarding pass just lying around before going to the airport. I'd watch more of these jetsetting dancing mysteries but preferably with a different writer. Probably the best of these new mystery series.