L'art du meurtre

Saw in on TV late last night. Yeah, I can hear what y'all say about this one. It IS likely to be categorized as one of those stereo- typical TV soap series. In all fairness, the story line does have a fine twist to it, and you might nod saying, "Well, that's not what I expected." But, as a film, well it is not easy to spot a redeeming element. Casting, acting, camera work, cars, costume, setting, script, no, there's nothing to congratulate. Rated R?? Oh, that scene. Did we need it? This is a film that you can watch it and then forget that you even watched. And what was the title again?

This was a truly bad film. The character "Cole" played by Michael Moriarty was the biggest reason this flopped, the actor felt that conjuring up an unbelievably awkward southern drawl would make this character more evil, it didn't. After about 20 minutes I had wished for a speech therapist to make an appearance, this would have added some sincerity.

• 1) badly acted - 2) unsympathetic characters - 3) razor thin plot line

Yuck!

The various nudity scenes that other reviewers referred to are poorly done and a body double was obviously used. If Ms. Pacula was reluctant to do the scenes herself perhaps she should have turned down the role offer.

Otherwise the movie was not any worse than other typical Canadian movies. As other reviewers have pointed out Canadian movies are generally poorly written and lack entertainment value, which is what most movies watchers are hoping to get. Perhaps Canadian movie producers are consciously trying to "de-commercialize" their movies but they have forgotten a very important thing - movies by definition are a commercial thing....

This movie had potential but it just never gets off the ground. The actors/actresses come across as bored with the script and this results in just a bad movie that is not worth watching. I like Boyd Kestner and seeing his name on the cast was what attracted me to watching the movie. The movie just doesn't work. The nude scenes were unneccessary and could have been deleted completely without losing zilch from an already bad picture.

A decent script with innovative (and believable) plot twists can be found if one dusts away the substandard acting and directing. Sadly, Moriarty appears to be barely able to stand during most scenes. The once beautiful Pakula is too old to play this role, and exhibits the enthusiasm of a beaten mule. Peter Onorati is pedestrian as a villain who should be played as a maniac. Interesting the wish list for casting in this was: Gene Hackman (in Moriarty's role) Alec Baldwin (as Tony) Rachel Ward in Pakula's role, and Willem Dafoe in Onorati's role. (script was written in mid -eighties) The original setting was Charleston, South Carolina, with the principles members of the southern aristocracy.