Contrato de Risco

Competent mystery movie telling the murder of the wife of a well succeed young executive (Mc Carthy)which investigation leads to the belief that he is the main suspect. Full of surprises, although some of them not very well explained and with a final solution plausible, at least. I give this a 6 (six).

I was cajoled into watching this TV movie by the wife, who has very positive nostalgic memories of Andrew McCarthy (Mannequin, Pretty in Pink, St Elmo's Fire) and found it to be actually rather good.

It may not have the budget of The Usual Suspects, but it's intriguing none the less as the nice plot gradually plays out. Some of the whodunnits are very obvious, as McCarthy tries to piece together who killed his wife and why, like the supposed friend and work colleague or the father in law, but overall this is one worth sticking with to the end.

Good performance by the guy of The Sopranos and also look out for the laughingly titled magazine 'Dungeon Bitch' - used to put the colleague in the frame.

As long as you don't expect too much, you'll enjoy.

R

Grabbed this one purely because I needed a Kate McNeil fix. Getting harder and harder to find her these days.

The poor early dialogue and overdone exposition made me think this is another cheesy cable drama, but once the story begins to unfold (and the dialogue lessens) it really rolls out into a darn good thriller. Many different suspects (the parents, the friend, the lover, the co-worker), lots of motives keep you guessing.

Its no frills, you won't have anywhere near the production value of Seven, Silence of the Lambs, or even Kiss the Girls. And try not to pay too much attention to Andrew McCarthy, or Paul Sorvino for that matter, as their minimalist approach to character will only distract you from the story.

Too bad this little script ultimately found itself in the low-budget land of straight-to-video. A little TLC and a few bucks could have paid big dividends here.

All in all a very pleasant surprise.

Dull, tedious, with a ridiculous ending.

The Ramsey curve indeed!

I like to think that movie makers take a good story and put it together into a good film. But sometimes they don't. Here it seems they wanted the ending to be undetectable so they twisted the story into knots and attached an ending to it that leaves you dazed and confused and wondering why you chose to watch it. The acting is ok but the screenplay is not. It's kind of like playing a game of Clue by yourself. 5/10.