Stealing Paradise

I like Rachael Lee Cook, always have and always will. She is the main reason I decided to watch this movie. She plays a character close to her age, a 29-year-old MIT-trained aeronautical engineer. Up-and-coming star in her Boston area company. Her senior co-worker becomes aware of a project she is working on at home, it would be a new type of device for braking after landing of jet engines. Inspired by her father, a pilot who died because of a short runway.

One day she becomes aware that the other fellow is claiming the invention for himself. All her designs show up on his work computer. Then he is found dead, apparently murdered. All that happens pretty early in the movie and the rest is trying to figure out who the murderer is.

It has all the earmarks of a low-budget TV movie and some of the scenes, especially in the courtroom, are a bit cheesy. But the story is constructed in a way that makes it entertaining and interesting all the way through. My wife and I enjoyed it as light but decent entertainment.

At home, streaming on Amazon Prime movies.

Almost 90 minutes of my life I can't get back. This movie is wholly unredeemable. I thought that maybe with Rachel Leigh Cook in the movie, it couldn't be all bad. I was wrong. The shadow box from her father, with a picture of him as a pilot (who died in an accident years earlier when he overflew the runway), but it displayed Air Force enlisted stripes. Pilots are Officers in the Air Force, not enlisted personnel. Other reviews cover the acting, the plot, and the placid reactions to serious situations. A brilliant engineer who does all the wrong things in the midst of defending herself. There are better movies out there. Don't waste your time with this one.

It's an interesting concept in breaking the engineering sexism that only men can design great projects, but as brilliant as the protagonist is, you never see her doing any work other than being a busy body. For a woman who is supposed to be a brilliant engineer, she is a complete fool in dealing with the police, the engineer who stole her design, and her colleagues who could prove her innocent. Each time she does something to try and save herself, the viewer is left asking, "how can someone who is so smart, so foolish." It is her own stupidity that keeps the plot going, which is totally contrary to her character of a brilliant engineer. The movie has good suspense and action, as long as you don't care about the inconsistencies of the character.

I've seen my fair share of made for TV movies and this has to be the best one to date. While the ending was a little anticlimactic and disappointing it didn't spoil my overall enjoyment.

I have to admit that I was on the verge of switching the movie off in the first couple of minutes as it had that typical start to an average TV movie but I'm glad I stuck to it as once the mystery got going it piqued my interest.

There are several twists and turns that will confuse you as to the identity of the killer- I thought I had it figured out but I was way off the mark and it was fun to be bamboozled.

Rachel Leigh Cook is decent for the most part, not quite as convincing as the nerd MIT genius that her character is made out to be. Graham Abbey as her brother is not bad too.

I think that this movie warrants a higher rating than what's listed. It's certainly not the best mystery movie out there nor is it a box office burner but it is certainly ranks as one of the best TV movies released and it's definitely worth watching on a lazy Sunday or on a rainy evening.