Jodi Arias: Dirty Little Secret (2013)

This is a very well made dramatization of the Jodi Arias murder of Travis Alexander. Most people who watch the news this year would have seen images of the photos or Jodi testifying at trial. Now it comes to life on screen in a thorough and clear manner. Of course all the elements of a good movie are there already from the facts of the case: attractive young protagonists, sex, photos, obsession and a terrible murder.The story of the relationship is actually very interesting. The obsession and stalking behavior of Jodi is shown - a real life Fatal Attraction. Quite fascinating is seeing the values of the Mormon faith clash when a Mormon starts a relationship with a non Mormon. Felt sorry for the clean cut Travis struggling between his belief in abstinence until marriage and his desire for Jodi. The movie is balanced as it shows he was wrong to have keep sleeping with her after he know how obsessive and unhinged she was.The acting is quite good. Jesse Lee Soffer is sympathetic as the conflicted Travis. Tania Raymonde is just wacko looking enough - not too much for the obsessed Jodi.The murder itself is horrifying and they do show the killing - enough to know what happened though not too much that it would be sickening.Well done. Be prepared - it's much more affecting than any fictional stalker thriller movie.

I've followed the trial. It's incredibly an interesting case. A young woman murdering her lover for one. Usually it's the other way around. The real prosecutor is brilliant and a real character. There is so much to work with. This movie barely skims the top. It has zero emotion and misses any chance of eliciting horror on the part of the viewer. This poor guy was butchered. The least they could have done is make the viewer feel sympathy for this guy. What he went through was scary and horrible. There is so much dysfunction and sex in their relationship and it's pretty much left out. Most of her stalking, driving across the desert to kill him, the effort she put into planning the murder, etc. was all left out. It's almost like they said "how can we take all this awesome material and make the worst movie ever?" BIG FAIL

'Fatal Attraction' is an old story. Few cases have been chronicled, the most well known being Carolyn Warmus in the early 1990's. It too was in the national limelight, she was found guilty of murder, and not one but two movies were made telling the story. But as we know, the Jodi Arias story was more compelling because of the unexpected, lurid details of their deviant personal sanctum. No court case has ever presented to the public what should be rated X. All in all, "Dirty Little Secret" does the best it can do. There were only two people who could tell the real story, but one is dead and the other is a chronic liar. I'm sure there are many who will agree that Jodi Arias is a better actress than the woman who played her in this film. Thus there is no way a film can portray this story with pure accuracy. 'Artistic license' is unavoidable, and why this film struck me as an attempt to stay as close to what the producers knew at the time it was filmed. "Dirty Little Secret" may have its faults, but it's definitely worth seeing.

Everybody knows the Jodi Arias story, so the whole movie is pretty much an exercise in futility from the very start. This movie provides no insights, revelations or alternate theories. It's a 2 hour television movie that dramatizes a creepy girl stalking a guy who is "just not that into her" for all but the last 10 minutes. Who hasn't been involved, or at least know somebody who has been affected by, a significant other who just couldn't let go? The reason this story captured our attention as a nation was what happened the day Travis Alexander was killed and everything after. We are fascinated by the totally emotionless narcissistic liar that is Jodi Arias & her unstable behavior after the murder. This movie totally misses the mark by spending 99% of its time telling a boring story. A director that is responsible for a classic like Eight Men Out should have been able to provide a better perspective on a tragedy that captured the American imagination. It's not poorly acted, poorly directed, nor even really poorly written... it just totally missed the mark of what made this case stand out. They spent zero time establishing what caused Arias to become such a monster. She wasn't just a pretty normal girl who cracked one day. Jeffery Dahmer wasn't just a mixed up kid who got jealous one day & neither was Jodi Arias. This movie totally misses exploring anything that made this incident stand out. If you want to watch a movie about a creepy stalker, check out Marky Mark in the movie Fear & don't waste your time with this.