Coupable probablement

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.

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 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.

For a TV movie? This is astounding. The quality of the production is amazing. The details in the acting and the unique style of the film make this one to watch out for. And the story? Based on a very intriguing true story. Thanks everyone for making this movie, and showing us how good "made for TV productions can be".

Riveting, chilling performance by Paul Gross -- who plays the creepily charming evil twin to the Due South incorruptible decent Mountie he played on TV for years. Did I say chilling? Also disturbing, without needing to have gratuitous violence or a serial killer in it! Based on the book about Patrick Kelly, a real undercover RCMP officer accused of murdering his first wife -- one of the only things they could even try pinning on him.

The story and performances are worthy of a feature film -- production values decent, too, so you won't be distracted by lack thereof, as often happens in MOW. The title is lousy, however -- this is anything but an Agatha Christie novel, although you will be wondering if, indeed, he "dunnit" or not. Worth your two hours.