Un jour de chance

I'm not the kind of person who watches TV a lot, but I did incidentally caught this film two times on TV. The second time I saw it about two years have passed since my first viewing, but interestingly enough I recognized the film and even remembered the story and characters, which means the whole thing had something memorable.

I wouldn't like to give anything away not even the first minute of it, but basically if you catch this on TV, what you need to expect from this is a good murder mystery story, with a female protagonist, good characters, filled with occasional suspense. Don't expect originality though, and complicated puzzles, it's more of a typical murder mystery, but a good one.

If you want to release stress after a long and hard day at work, and this is on TV, then it's on for you.

When her elderly male friend (who is convinced it's his lucky day) is murdered, a woman who works for a courier service sets out to help the police find his killer.

As Rifftrax put it, "Do you find episodes of Matlock too fast-paced and interesting?" Then this tv movie is for you! If you enjoy hate-watching movies this is a great one for the entirely predictable plot, stilted acting, terrible background music and the same locations featured over and over.

No one had to tell me that this was a product of Canadian producer Sonny Jacobson. He's used that weird suspense-type music a million times.

The TV film versions of Mary Higgins Clark's novels aren't the best. They're usually not well directed with medium production values and blah acting. Also they move like molasses.

That being said, being a mystery buff, I never miss one! This one, Lucky Day, stars Amanda Donohue as an actress, Nora Barkin, who is determined to find out what happened to a close friend, an older man named Bill. He disappears one night en route to her place after possibly winning money in the lottery. She appeals to a police detective (Tony LoBianco) for help. Though he's somewhat dismissive, there's something about her resolve that makes him think there might be something to the disappearance. He's right.

Donohue, who's obviously older than the man playing her husband, German actor Gregor Törzs, seems out of place here somehow. And you can't believe for one minute that her husband cared about this lost friend, even though we hear over and over that the couple was all Bill had. Donohue isn't photographed well. She and Guylaine St-Onge, who plays Sandra, probably weigh 75 pounds each. I've never seen such thin people. That's just a side note, I couldn't help noticing it. Also, though they're supposed to be in New York City, they're obviously not.

Donohue does a good job, but she's fighting slow direction, mediocre dialogue and characters that aren't really fleshed out. Only Nora and friend Bill are given any depth. As far as Nora's marriage, they don't seem like they belong together.

Somehow because of the decent stories, these films come off as mildly entertaining. It's a case of the whole being better than the sum of its parts.

This is a pretty good tv-movie. It had a good plot with some un-expecting twists. The acting is decent only the directing is a bit lame and the story had a bit more potential. But for a tv movie it's good, so watch it when it comes by on television.