Arthur Hailey's Detective (2005)

This movie took a pretty massive book and condensed it somewhat into about three hours of screen time. Condensing I get, but there are other problems: (1) The original book had a fairly straightforward set of flashbacks that really built the suspense for me. This made-for-TV movie rendered the entire plot as a sequential time line, dashing key elements of the original story's suspense. TV viewers can't handle flashbacks? Come on, give me a break! (2) In the movie, Cynthia Ernst, fellow detective of the title role, had not an ounce of the charisma, go-for-the-jugular dynamism and downright sex appeal of the book's character. Worse, she may as well have been dressed in a sweatshirt and stretch pants for most of the movie. Bad choice of actress, too? Maybe. (3) The sexual tension between the movie's Ernst character and Detective-Sergeant Ainslie, a major source of the suspense in the book, was all but undetectable in the movie. Put it down to a lack of chemistry between Tom Berenger and Annabeth Gish, I guess. (Not as bad as Bird On A Wire, but I'm just saying...) (4) The potential for suspense that should attend the discovery of a major public figure's involvement in a major crime, plus the tension of obtaining the final proof, was 99% wasted. That was how the book made my pulse pound! (5) The motivation for the major public figure's crime was revealed in the book, but not in the movie. Another opportunity wasted. ... On balance, Detective-Sergeant Ainslie's wife Karen was played by Cybill Shepherd, and I love watching her do anything.... :)

not a bad movie. just not a good one. it is tolerable, the kind of movie you will end up watching if you are sick in bed and can't find the remote. it's a "movie of the week" paced like a mini-series event scheduled during sweeps. Tom Berenger is good (as he always is) and Cybill Shepherd is, well, Cybill Shepherd. Annabeth Gish is totally wasted. She seems to actually be absent through most of her performance except for the occasional shrill outburst towards the end. You can't really blame the actors because the real flaw is the story line and script: back-to-back pointless and clichéd conversations that do nothing to move the plot along.

It took many hours to get through this predictable detective story. With a strong heavy weight cast, it still seems endless with many scenes that were just too long. Is this the writing? Directing? Or acting? Tom Berenger in the lead role as the detective out to solve the crimes, seemed to be going around in a daze, not sure what was happening around him. When he is faced with truths, his face doesn't change expression. I usually like this actor, but not in this. Cybill Shepherd wasted in a thankless role as the wife he left behind. Not much for her to do. Too bad. More of her could have made the story at least exciting. Annabeth Gish, just was bad casting. Not much going on there. One expression throughout the movie. No one cared. Veteran Charles Durning also wasted in a nothing role. Don't see much of him. Sean O'Bryan and David Atkinson, to this viewer turned in the most interesting and challenging roles. Good acting and energy sadly lacking from the others. But, please a four hour movie? It has to have something to hold interest. I welcomed the commercials just to get a break.

Three hours of utterly wasted time.Berenger was obviously bored as never before and utters his lines with a kind of guilty embarrassment for having accepted the part.After a succession of brutal murders by a serial killer with which the movie starts, the action and suspense grind to a halt: the police follow four possible suspects, who are all weirdos and inspired by a form of religious insanity. The very long and tedious discussions concerning the murder weapon and the repetitive and alternating confrontations between Berenger and his wife and mistress are detrimental to the dramatic intensity.Furthermore, the basic theme of the priest turned cop may have seemed like a gimmick to the producers but it doesn't work with an audience.The viewer also sees through the plot quite early on and the ending is more than predictable. There is nothing really exceptional about this movie apart from the fact that it is hard to accept that it was ever made in the first place.