Gilded Newport Mysteries: Murder at the Breakers

I looked forward to this group of Hallmark movies. I was so disappointed to see them ignoring historical truths of the time. I don't think different races mixed in higher social settings.

The clothes didn't fit right and were of the wrong fabric. Baggy full length gloves , baggy bodices, even the men's jackets and shirts were baggy.

The female hairstyles had curls dangling onto the face. In this time, hair was put up and didn't usually have curls hanging on the face. If curls were present, the were next to the ears, not in face.

Houses could have been wonderful but instead looked cheap and had the wrong floor coverings.

The plot wasn't bad but the directing and production aspects left it wanting.

I think these mysteries have big potential but can't be done on the "cheap".

I confess that, yes, I usually like Hallmark movies. And I like period pieces. So this movie is a terrible disappointment.

I just finished watching season 2 of The Gilded Age so I hope I didn't grade this movie further down in comparison but these are the thoughts that came to mind while viewing:

It has second rate acting.

It has third rate plot and dialogue.

It has fourth rate directing. Over directing.

(Third rate on average.)

The endless and all too frequent quick cuts during conversations were nauseating. And the puzzling way some of the actors uttered their lines had me blaming the director too.

I was so looking forward to this as I am a fan of Hallmark mysteries and have been very impressed with their period works like "Three Beds, Two Bathrooms and One Ghost" (with the incredible Madeline West) and "A Biltmore Christmas". But, this movie is a huge failure.

The entire cast (except for Nanny) is awful, with the lead actress sleepwalking her way through the role. The lead detective looks like a surfer dude and the third component of this "love triangle" is a complete bore. Add to that a story with horrible pacing and some unbelievably sophomoric detective work. I finally fast-forwarded to the last 10 minutes to find out whodunit because I couldn't take it anymore.

Hallmark, you've been warned. If this really is the first episode of a series, recast the main leads and for crying out loud, enough with the dopey curls!

Kept trying to like it, but the acting was so bad. For a period piece, only a couple of the characters portrayed it well. The others characters were like JR high students merely just reading lines for a play. I like the lead in Firefly Lane, so I expected a much better performance from her.

I was excited for a new mystery series on Hallmark, so I hope if they do more if these, they improve the acting. I enjoy most of the Hallmark mysteries and he really find the acting and stories to be decent. I managed to finished it but only because I really hoped it would get better, but it didn't but at least I know who did it.

I was looking forward to this because it involves a period of American history that I find very interesting which is the time of the robber barons. It is immediately disconcerting when the very first scene is supposed to be a ball debut at the breakers, which is arguably the most famous mansion in Newport and the carriage pulls up at an impressive building, which is not the breakers. Neither are the interiors for the ballroom scene from the breakers. In addition to that, the period looks are completely off every single case various characters tell the main character, Miss Vanderbilt-Cross how stunning she looks in a gown that is positively dowdy and does not fit right. The hair is wrong. The makeup is wrong and the hats are wrong. The men's costumes are not much better. Some of the women of debutante age look like they are just playing dress up . In addition to the visual miss- steps we are expected to believe that at a very grand debutante ball everyone is waltzing to a string Quartet, and not a full orchestra. Mrs. Vanderbilt of the Breakers probably would have had two orchestras so that one could take a break and the music could go on interrupted. On top of that -and I don't care how politically incorrect it is to say so,, the recent practice of what I believe is called color blind casting is vastly disconcerting to a story that it is set in this highest level of New York society. A dressmaker in Newport that is a lady of color while somewhat implausible is at least a possibility but even a coroner's assistant being a lady of color borders more on the unbelievable in 1895. The hapless detective trying to conduct a murder investigation against all odds while very attractive looks more like an underwear model than a late 19 century policeman. I know that these TV movies are meant to be entertainment and not historical documents but period pieces are held to a higher standard in recent years and honestly, this is just a mess and the lackluster script and plot devices simply are not strong enough in their own right to make anything out of this.