A Beautiful Place to Die: A Martha's Vineyard Mystery

7/10 - such a refreshingly different Hallmark movie and a genuinely intriguing mystery

Obvious , it is not an impressive crime film. But, no doubts, it is nice. The temptation, for me and, maybe, for others, was Jesse Mrtcalfe, giving a decent job in this case. The second - Eric Keenleyside and Christine Willis. The paternity problem and dark side of a rich man life works just not so bad. The result - nice and pure Hallmark-esque.

The series by Phillip Craig was so wonderful and one of my favourite mystery series. When he passed away I knew there would be no more of J. W. and Zee's adventures. So, I was happy to see that a movie series would be made. Jesse Metcalfe makes a good Jeff, but the Zee character is unrecognizable. In the series Zee has long dark hair, is a very earthy & compassionate person, and is a nurse. For some odd reason, in the movie she is a blonde fashionista doctor. And her acting leaves much to be desired. She comes to a crime scene in high heels. Really? But I did enjoy the story and of course, the scenery. I live near where it was filmed and recognized some of the locations here in SouthW BC. I will watch the next one but really wish the movie reflected more of the books.

The movie seemed to get off to a decent start as far as procedures, which can be distracting when they are sloppy in these movies. The chief was calling for warrants and it looked like the writers would be on the ball. Turns out that the trend flopped soon after that. Jeff handles all kinds of evidence with no gloves. And other things. So OK, this series won't be great on procedures either.

Another minor hole is that Jeff is supposed to have a bullet near his spine and "his doctor" orders him to go easy, yet he spends the rest of the movie running, jumping and fighting.

The mystery is pretty good albeit a bit heavy handed. There are plenty of suspects and some of them are pretty mean looking or acting suspiciously. We get a few red herrings. I didn't figure out whodunit.

The acting is OK. Sarah Lind wasn't sparkling, but as another reviewer said, she didn't have a lot of opportunity to shine. I also agree with that review that the chemistry between her and Metcaff wasn't great, but it was starting to brew. Like all these Hallmark M&M's the leads develop some romance over several movies and I expect the same here. Sometimes there is virtually none in the first installment.

One of my complaints with these series is how unprofessional it is for "amateurs" to have so much involvement and especially to take so many risks. At least in this series, both of the leads have some justification in their involvement and Jeff is trained as a cop so when he takes a risk it is probably calculated.

I look forward to more Martha's Vineyard Mysteries, but I feel bad for this smaller community if murders start piling up.

The story line was interesting, was unsure how this would play out. Not always a big Jesse Metcalfe fan, however his recent Hallmark Christmas movie was not that bad and his acting here was good. From what I read this was Sarah Lind's first Hallmark movie, her acting was a bit stiff, but maybe with another couple of movies under her belt could rectify that situation. I thought the supporting roles were well played, bottom line, i expected a mundane flick and got something better in return.