Death Benefit (1996)
Steven Keeney is a big corporate lawyer who decides to take on a small-time murder case to discover the true circumstances behind the death of a young girl. Virginia McGinnis is the one suspected of pushing the women off the cliff to collect on a small insurance policy. The further he goes into the case the more he reveals about the background of the suspect. Keeney finds support from others who also want to find out the truth behind the case.
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This movie is interminable. Peter Horton plays a lawyer who is out to investigate the possible homicide of a young girl virtually nobody cares about, including anybody unfortunate enough to happen to watch this incredibly dull film.Helmed by TV director Mark Piznarski, you get the feeling this "based on a true story" script has LOTS of embellishments, and none of them are interesting. No real reason is given as to why Horton's character is sooooo obsessed with this case that he would jeopardize his career, his relationship with his son and everyone else in his life. He just is. What makes it even harder to believe is we're never really given much of a portrait of the murdered girl. I didn't find her case compelling in the slightest, yet here's Horton obsessed with it. Carrie Snodgrass as the killer had a chance to create an interesting character, but never even reaches the level of killer in a bad episode of "Law & Order".This film illustrates the real death benefit is that the dead can't be forced to watch this.
This movie was really good. It is a true case! Read the book, "Death Benefit" by David Heilbroner. There is another movie based on the same case but they changed some facts in the real story which I did not like. In the second movie, they implied the murdered girl had learning disabilities which was confusing and don't understand why they did that. The girl in the real story was mildly retarded. This movie was very accurate to the real story. People want to know THE REAL STORY! And all the details. This movie was very good. Loved the actor that played the lawyer!
Most of this tale was hard to swallow: first you have a attorney who cares, then you have a case which appears to be totally unprovable, and finally, a woman who keeps pulling murders for insurance payoffs and getting away with it. Hard to believe this really took place. Good drama.
I enjoyed both movies. Both are well acted. This one uses the real names of the lawyer and the evil mother. There's a book about Steven Keeney's quest for justice. In the other one, the focues is on the troubled relationship between the murdered daughter and her mother. The mother appears to be the driver behind finding the truth.