Meurtre à l'eau de rose

Nutjob (Ladd) forces herself on a horny guy (Spano) and kills his wife when he does not return her love. And all the jilted women of the universe cheer when he's convicted of the crime. Yes, jilted women have another cheesecake while LIFETIME television brings you a twisted version of reality. It doesn't matter if the man wasn't guilty -- WOMAN empowerment is more important than truth and justice. Send him to jail for cheating.

My mother was watching this when I visited her recently. The pathetic writer made up new laws for the trial lawyers. Allowing the murderer's lawyer to completely disregard reality.

A judge who was asleep during law school, a man perfectly framed by what was obviously a nut case female. The Bad Man cheated on her

--- Ohhhh ---

Isn't that a good enough reason for Nutjob to KILL HIS wife.

Just a foolish chick flick, the kind real people avoid like the plague. This is only for malcontents who sit on their bums feeding their face with cheesecake because they can't get dates.

The only redeemable thing about this entire movie is Holland Taylor because she is an amazing actress. Everyone else (Jordan Ladd, Vincent Spano) were completely melodramatic and over-acting. Granted, television movies are not supposed to be of Oscar-winning calibers but this takes the bad-television movie genre to an entire level of horrible. Jordan Ladd's character was over-acted and too melodramatic even for a psychotic character. Other supporting characters like the mothers of Vincent Spano and Jordan Ladd made the movie worse by feeding off of their costars bad acting. The scenes were so predictable that my friend and I were anticipating the dialogue before it happened and then ending up to be right. The music made it even worse. It was your classic bad tele-flick, made worse by terrible actors. 0/4 stars

It apparently escaped everyone's notice, but Holland Taylor put on the best lawyer scene I have ever seen in the movies. Second after her is Raul Julia's performance in the Harrison Ford movie (whatever it was). To refer to it as "humorous", as in one comment, is completely undiscriminating. I haven't seen anywhere where she has been given the credit this portrayal deserves. So far, it is a classic. I hope Holland sees this and realizes that someone out there appreciates the overwhelming individuality she brought to this scene. To reiterate, It apparently escaped everyone's notice, but Holland Taylor put on the best lawyer scene I have ever seen in the movies. Second after her is Raul Julia's performance in the Harrison Ford movie (whatever it was). To refer to it as "humorous", as in one comment, is completely undiscriminating. I haven't seen anywhere where she has been given the credit this portrayal deserves. So far, it is a classic. I hope Holland sees this and realizes that someone out there appreciates the overwhelming individuality she brought to this scene.

It's not a cinematic masterpiece or anything, but it was enjoyable. I didn't find it to be overly predictable, and towards the third act, I wondered which way things would go. Sure, some aspects were exaggerated, like the courtroom theatrics-- but Holland Taylor brought a great performance into this lower-budget film. The main actress did a pretty good job as well.

I happened upon this flick on a rainy Sunday, intending to tune-in to something else. Out of curiosity, I accessed the comments here, and found myself watching it to the end. I really didn't do so with intent -- this was one of those movies where you're "fascinated," and watch it for "another couple of minutes," until you finally just watch to the end. And the indictment of it in most of these comments made it more fascinating to view. The one comment where the person really liked it seems to be solely as a result of liking Ladd and Spano, and their earlier roles. But great isn't anywhere to be found anywhere here - story, performances, and particularly the absurd courtroom hi-jinks. We all know that Perry Mason (before Raymond Burr passed the 300-lb. mark), and Ben Matlock, are granted some leeway in cavorting around the courtroom, instead of being boringly confined to a lectern. And Matlock is especially granted the privilege of entering exhibits often by simply going to the jury and showing them, before the judge and prosecutor have even been informed of, or shown, them. No real-life judge or prosecutor would stand for this.

Both Perry and Ben almost always ended the proceedings by wringing a confession of the real killer. Actually Perry nearly always did this, but often Matlock would simply present overwhelming evidence of the true culprit, pronounce it "reasonable doubt," and then leave it to the cops and prosecutors to proceed against the guilty party - sometimes on-camera, sometimes presumed at the end of the show.

But that said, Holland Taylor's histrionics and the amount of leeway afforded her, in the courtroom portion of this story, made the actions of Matlock/Mason more-closely resemble the slow, often boring detail such as seen on Court TV and in real-life courtrooms.

Every character in this presentation was either insipid, unsympathetic, obnoxious, boring, improbable - or some combination of two or more of these.

The ending was the most banal, absurd, even silly conclusion possible - but again, fascinating because of this. Ladd and Spano are attractive individuals, and t.v. movies would appear their best forte - probably best in 2nd-lead (probably better if "3rd-") roles, even in this venue. Taylor could be cast as the aunt or mother of one of them. Give this one 1 star for the story/performances, and 3 additional for the fascination factor.