Le fiancé aux deux visages

First of all, I was not familiar with the Craiglist killer before this movie, but I looked it up and the events in the movie appear oversimplified/altered but not so distorted as to make it an unrecognizable story. However, that's about the only positive thing that can be said...

Such a collection of bad choices... The story is about - you guessed it - the Craigslist killer. Philip Markoff led a double life as an engaged, grade A med student, lots of friends, while at the same time seeking out sex workers on Craigslist to rob and humiliate, even killing one. Sounds enaging? Guess again! This movie manages to kill all and any interest the viewers might have.

The script/plot is messy and starts questions that it does not answer. For example, hinting at Markoff's family history, but not following up on that. Showing his M. O., but never explaining why or how he started doing this. And much, much more.

Moreover, the acting is horrible and almost 80% consists of "romantic" lovey dovey scenes between Markoff and his feyoncé. Very stunted dialogues with the senselessness and simplicity, even a teenager would think it's dumb. Ridiculous and superficial. Think level "I love you - no, I love you more", "you're so perfect" and worse. It has no point. If it was meant to give their relationship more credit, as a "how shocking that he lived so separate lives", it just failed. Instead, it comes across as if you're watching a different kind of movie. And the main problem: if you were to cut these parts out, there would be exactly 20 minutes of movie left.

Oh! And the music! "Clueless" or "Dawson's Creek" would have been jealous! It was so stupendously off-the-mark that it was almost funny, had it not been such a serious topic. Romcom songs play in all the scenes involving his bride-to-be, but also in a lot of scenes that had a much darker tone, making it even more inappropriate.

Then there are the few parts about his actual crimes, but these are filmed like it's a low budget student project and with zero suspense. Even though the actual women he attacked must have gone through something terrifying and traumatic, in the movie it elicites no empathetic or emotional resposne in the viewer. Even near the ending of the movie, it left me wondering what the point was of making this movie.

The events that happened in real life could have been adapted to the screen in a respectful and captivating movie. This movie is not that. It seems amateuristic and as if it does not get the point of its own story.

Sub standard, even for a lifetime type of TV movie, which I usually quite like. Characters were annoying and not all that convincing. Was glad when it was over.

Like the rest of the world (it was a trending topic on Twitter) I was anxiously awaiting the world premiere of The Craigslist Killer. I'll give it this: for a Lifetime movie, it wasn't half bad. Could it have been better? Yes. At times the acting was bad, the music was cheesy, and it was a bit slow for the first thirty minutes. I was expecting the killing scenes to be a bit more intense than they were, but I guess that's what you get with a woman's network. I think if this had been taken to the big screen and directed by Scorsese it would have been a box office hit. You have to remember that Lifetime is a network directed towards women, so the movies are directed towards women as well (hence all the romance in the beginning.) All in all I'd say it was a decent movie. It wasn't something I would pay money to see, but it was something that filled my time and kept me semi interested.

I have to give the film makers points for staying true to the story, almost everything they showed actually happened and they even used the real names. However, the lack of flair usually given to "based on true story" movies ultimately led it to not be that interesting.

The whole feel of the movie doesn't match the story at all like some hallmark Christmas fall in love with the obvious character movie. It's a slow burn very boring. An excellent story that should of been told by someone else.