Brilliant New York crime author Graydon Jennings agrees to help Kelly Holden investigate her sister Allison's murder, which seems uncannily equal to one his anti-hero-lead character Carlton ... Read allBrilliant New York crime author Graydon Jennings agrees to help Kelly Holden investigate her sister Allison's murder, which seems uncannily equal to one his anti-hero-lead character Carlton James's kills for the thrill. In the sisters' Vermont home, starting from her diary, they ... Read allBrilliant New York crime author Graydon Jennings agrees to help Kelly Holden investigate her sister Allison's murder, which seems uncannily equal to one his anti-hero-lead character Carlton James's kills for the thrill. In the sisters' Vermont home, starting from her diary, they come up with a theory.
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It does not take a lot of convincing, nor does it take a lot of time for crime novelist Graydon Jennings to agree to get invlolved and quickly embarass the local police with his investigative approach whiich leads Kelly and Graydon with a couple of prime suspects. What would a murder/mystery film be if we didn't have an influential, well known, corrupt and slimy politician leading the list of potential murder suspects?
Okay, so the film has a few holes in it and the director/writer(s) deliberately provide us with a few suspects so we have to fugure out the "whodunit", but all in all the on screen chemistry between the two lead actors Shiri Appleby and Chris Potter helped me at least want to see how the movie ends.
Did it thrill me? No But it did not disappoint me either so I give the film a passable 5 out of 10 rating. An okay time waster. Nothing more, nothing less.
Crime author Graydon Jennings narrates the first scenes of this movie, which take place in a dance club with strobe lighting. I say crime author because his books are like "Columbo" movies. You know who did it, but the idea is to watch the investigation.
A year after the murder of her sister Alison, bartender Kelly of Manchester, Vermont, sees Jennings being interviewed and buys one of his books. Amazed by the similarities to her sister's case, Kelly goes to a book signing in Burlington and persuades Jennings to investigate the murder. He agrees.
Weird things start happening. Hank, a frequent customer at Clyde's Bar where Kelly works, liked Alison a lot and continues stalker-like behavior. The prime suspect in Alison's murder, though, seems to be Senator Hartford, one of many men she spent time with. At least he is believed to be "Cicero" from Alison's diary.
Kelly confronts Hartford, but there's no real evidence, and Hartford wants Kelly silenced.
Despite this being a TV-movie, certain words to describe Alison's promiscuous behavior are used. In flashbacks, we see Alison behaving badly. But the most sexy scene is the one where Kelly's friend Linda stays over (because Kelly is afraid) and takes a shower after running.
During the second half, there are some scary moments, but this is an ordinary thriller at best.
There's nothing that special here. Matt Cooke is pretty good as the senator. Chris Potter's narration at the beginning raises expectations, and he has some good moments later, but this is nothing more than a Lifetime-type movie, and not one of the better ones. But it is entertaining enough, and not too violent.
I won't spoil anything because the movie is not worth rehashing in that way. What would have been a surprise is if the villain turned out to not be the villain, but Kelly was such an idiot that it had to be on purpose and would have made no sense for her to not be playing right into the villain's hands. The parts with the politician were cringe and it was like she was in denial over not knowing what her sister was involved in. But as I said, she does a lot of things that irked me. There were so many signs practically hitting her over head that the only thing more obvious would be a cartoon DANGER sign flashing in her face.
This was a disappointing movie, and I think I napped afterwards. That's how bored I was. I will give the movie kudos for some of the creep factor. No matter how bad the movie, a person home alone and unknowingly at the mercy of the villain always gets to me. But Kelly was hard to root for because she lacked all common sense.
This is a Lifetime TV movie in every ways especially the production value. Shiri Appleby does really well as the damsel in distress. However there is just a few nagging plot points that is never addressed. When Graydon mentions the other girl, there is an obvious serial killer angle that is missed. Also Graydon as a suspect is dismissed almost immediately. These need to be explained much better. The plot has some possibilities as a standard murder mystery, but it's not quite good enough to recommend.
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