Murder Most Likely

An engaging TV thriller-drama that traces the ruthlessness of an Canadian undercover cop who has more to hide than what his occupation reveals. What's even more astonishing is that this is based on the true life story of Patrick Kelly, who's now still serving sentence for allegedly throwing his wife off a balcony. The acting is a bit slow moving but this is made up by the tension throughout. Kelly certainly gave the authorities the run, jetsetting from place to place all over the world. The chase in which the authorities mount to nail their man takes several years, but it's all worth at the end. The movie takes the stand that Patrick Kelly is guilty, even though the key witness in his conviction has recanted what she originally said. Guilty or not, you still want Kelly to go to jail -- for all the deceit and lies, and the way he duped the many women and friends who trusted him.

A big criticism I have of Canadian cinema is that our auteurs don't generally think big and seek to make films about the larger than life characters and difficult to believe stories of the Canadian experience. In fact a great deal of real life people, heroes & villains, and their lives would be excellent fodder for feature film and have been.

One of the most infamous Canadians ever was our version of a fed i.e. RCMP (In a modern context Canada's FBI, in a symbolic context Canada's Texas Rangers) i.e. a 'Mountie'. Foreigners think of Dudley Do-Right or Nelson Eddy, Sgt.Preston of the Yukon or Benton Fraser - the character Paul Gross played on the TV series 'Due South' when they think of a Mountie.

Paul Gross also played this very different kind of Mountie - a real-life cocky, smooth-talking, womanising, pretty-boy undercover narcotics cop by the name of Patrick Kelly who was only occasionally seen in the trademark dress uniform of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Kelly himself dressed in street clothes and acted like a sleazo to get drug dealers to sell to him and, in all probability, never did so on horseback.

This film details the questions raised about Kelly suggesting he committed arson for insurance money. At various times he was accused of drug-dealing, smuggling, money-laundering, defrauding business associates and cheating on his taxes. All whilst juggling affairs with multiple women including one who would claim to have witnessed him kill his wife throwing her from the balcony of their luxury lakeshore condo on Toronto's Palace Pier in 1981, a year after he quit the force.

Kelly was convicted of the murder years later. What makes the case and this film about it all so compelling for Canadians goes beyond the sensationalistic and at times salacious revelations about Kelly's personal life which the writing only superficially touches upon. The lingering question is whether he really did it.

Some doubt has hung over the verdict for 30 years now punctuated by the fact that the only supposed eyewitness recanted her testimony years later on a nationally-televised American talk show. The inconclusiveness of it all is touched upon by the script and alluded to by the title.

Preconceived notions persist in Canada when it comes to Mounties. The mainstream view is one which not only holds the RCMP in highest esteem for what it does to 'Maintain the Right' but for its proud history and symbolic significance in our culture. The vision of this stalwart defender of law and order riding across a rugged landscape remains compelling. In such a vision an innocent face like Patrick Kelly's is what is pictured wearing the 'Red Serge'.

There is also the reverse view. Many Aboriginal people view Mounties as an occupation force holding land stolen from them. Leftist intelligentsia here tend see it as a union-busting force. Numerous individual Canadians have specific personal grievances and a fair number of them used to be Mounties. A lot of people want to deflate the appealing myth.

Patrick Kelly was a master at cultivating the benefit of the doubt and Paul Gross's performance shows how Kelly did it in some very shocking scenes. It is a remarkable characterisation which suggests that Kelly was an icy creature masquerading as different things to different people. Gross and the rest of the cast convey the effect of the man's personalism.

The context of this character, his place in Canadian society and the events leading to his subsequent downfall make for fascinating viewing. The story raises a lot of questions. Gross as Kelly offers only a perfunctory, truncated summation of Kelly's side of it - a side most rational adults wouldn't think was worth hearing. Yet from a personal standpoint, deep down I want to believe Kelly is innocent.

Multiple names have been changed in this film and not all for dramatic license. It is clear some of this was done for legal reasons.

'Murder Most Likely' has a true crime title that also paints a picture behind the conviction of an ex-RCMP officer accused of killing his wife. It wasn't an air tight case and the sole witness later recanted. This is a made for tv movie that covers this detail amongst many others - some factual, some fiction - in a "true story" package with proper pacing and some standout acting from it's Canadian cast.

In the early 70's Patrick Kelly (Paul Gross) is an exceptional candidate for the RCMP undercover work. It's a nature fit for the man with good looks, charm. He meets Marie (Marie-Josee Croze) while on vacation in Mexico and they get married. A cop's salary isn't much and to afford a luxury lifestyle he'll go to any lengths. Borrow, steal, do jobs for crime figure Sammy (Beau Starr). With the force closing in - suspicions about living beyond his means - he resigns amidst his crumbling marriage and then his wife falls from their highrise condo. With a big life insurance policy.

I'd read the 1996 book 'The Judas Kiss' this is based on so it was easy to see the fabricated parts they added for effect. There was no Sammy, Patrick never remarried in real life. Otherwise this effectively shows you a master manipulator who knew how to game close friends, lovers, the system. Names have been changed too, but it still captures the essence of those involved.

Paul Gross is great in the lead role passing between warm & arrogant. Janine Theriault does justice to a damaged woman in the grips of love, brainwashed or mental illness. Maybe all three. Plus you get good spots from Tom McCamus (I Love A Man in Uniform) and William B. Davis (X Files) as a Toronto homicide detective & an RCMP superior respectively.

I saw 'Murder Most Likely' when it originally aired on CTV and thought I might not ever see it again. For the longest time, it was hard to score a copy. Luckily it's now popping up on streaming services. If you like this genre, this well filmed entry hits all the right notes.

Murder Most Likely was riveting. I think it's groundbreaking in its quality. Superb performances from Paul Gross and Janine Theriault whose acting style is a breath of fresh air from what you normally get from big name actors.

Thumbs up.

This neato Canadian thriller's Columbo-esque conceit is that the audience knows whodunit all along, and the fun is in watching the jig unravel for the bad guy.

And it really is quite fun, even though there's no Columbo-type detective in the show. Instead, at the center is dirty cop Patrick Kelly, who uses acting skills honed as an undercover operative to hide his true self from just about everybody who knows him. His true self being, of course, a murderer.

The story is told in a series of flashbacks and flash-forwards that may be a bit confusing for the inattentive, but the style works. Watching Kelly screw with people in the past, then hearing those same people testify about having been screwed with, is entertaining in a reality show sort of way.

As Patrick Kelly, Paul Gross manages to convey an unsettling creepiness that's an about-face from his more comedic role in the mid-'90s series "Due South." His performance is captivating, and that's important, because he's in practically every scene. He's taking us for a ride in much the same way his character does everyone else in the movie.

A few petty things detract a little bit from the fun. Occasionally, the Canadian TV origin of the picture is obvious in its framing and contrast. And the director has apparently never met a Mexican person, because Kelly's blue-eyed Mexican wife and redhead mother-in-law seem to have stepped right out of Toronto Central Casting and been told to speak like Penelope Cruz.

Overall, it's a worthy addition to your Netflix cue, and a value when purchased as part of that nifty "Murder at Midnight" eight-movie set for five bucks.