Good Morning, Killer

Of the recent mystery movies showing each Tuesday on TNT, "Good Morning, Killer" is so far the best. Catherine Bell stars as Ana Grey, an FBi officer who is investigating the case of a young woman who appears to have been kidnapped -- she's called her parents in distress, and then the connection is broken. Soon Ana and her team have put together the profile of a serial rapist who rapes and tortures his victims, and then lets them go with the words, "You won't forget me." However, one of his victims dies. They need to stop him before he strikes again.

The story is based on a novel by April Smith, which is part of a series. Therefore, we are left to wonder at the end about Ana's relationship with her boyfriend, played by Cole Hauser. Also, maybe I missed it, but the disappearance of the homeless man was unresolved. And obviously Ana's grandfather (William Devane) features more prominently in other books. It was great to see Devane again, but he didn't have much to do.

Catherine Bell, of Army Wives and JAG, does a good job and makes an attractive, strong heroine. Of the rest of the cast, James Jordan as Ray Brennan had a juicy role and made a great impression. You'll recognize several actors, including Titus Welliver from The Good Wife as well as some young newcomers.

On the whole, this series on TNT seems to be getting better.

I thought that this would be good, since Titus Welliver and Cole Hauser were in the cast, but it isn't. The story is more about female FBI agents being looked down upon by male FBI agents. I guess this is one of the early "strong woman" movies but the women aren't especially strong, or smart, or womanly, or...anything.

In fact, Titus Welliver doesn't do his usual competent job, either. Mostly, he just swans around, flapping his hands and making fun of the dialog written for him. I don't blame him, really. The dialog is pretty silly.

The cast, other than Welliver and Hauser are third string TV actors, though the female lead is still working her way up to third string. OK, that met the minimum character limit, though the first paragraph tells prospective viewers all I needed to say to warn them off.

James Jordan is exceptional as a very sick man. There is however nothing else exceptional about this movie. The writing is poor; at least this movie version. There is nothing special about the story.

Much of the drama is from the FBI agents not getting along. We need stories of people cooperating with each other and working as a team. Part of the story seems to be about the FBI agents working things out, but there seems to be too much emphasis on the disagreements. I think the disagreement was used to create drama.

I suspect that the original story, the book, placed more emphasis on the cooperation and resolution of difficulties. It is typical of movie versions of books that the more healthy interpersonal interaction is sacrificed to increase drama, and that is likely what happened here.