A Crime of Passion (2003)

"A Crime of Passion" is another deadly Canadian film version of a Mary Higgins Clark novel, this one starring Cynthia Gibb, Gordon Currie, Alexandra Kamp, and Tom Butler.This one is about a wealthy young woman, Freddie Dumay (Gibb) who has a winery, which she co-owns with Thomas Shipman (Butler). After a party, Shipman's unhappy wife is murdered. Shipman then takes up with a glamorous, shapely younger woman, Arabella (Kamp); Freddie has her investigated and finds out she's a con woman who usually works with a partner. Tragedy strikes a second time, and Freddie is in the position of trying to find out the truth.If there's one thing I detest, it's people in movies doing stupid things so that the scriptwriters can put them in danger. Case in point: Freddie gets a line on Arabella's partner and decides to confront him by going alone to a cabin in the woods at night. I doubt even an armed policewoman would do that. Later, when she's broken her ankle, is in bed and woozy from being given drugs, she decides to get up, take her crutches, and try to get down the stairs. Ridiculous. I won't even go into the denouement, which seemed to last for an hour.This could have been a decent mystery had it been better written. Instead, it's silly.

This was a great and exciting murder mystery. It kept me guessing the entire time who the murderer was. I thought I knew for sure who it was, but I was wrong. There were many twists and turns in this thriller. The acting was superb and I enjoyed watching every one of the actors. They gave a wonderful performance. I would definitely watch this movie when it comes on again. I gave this movie a 10 because it was a 10!Hallmark is doing an excellent job with these mysteries. Please keep them coming. Just wish they would turn off the music when the actors are speaking, so you can hear every word clearly. The music is louder than the voices.

Well, here is one of those feisty businesswoman-in-distress thrillers. Here, the a young, attractive partner in a successful winery is shocked after the wife of her business partner dies under suspicious circumstances. As usual in films like this, she (Cynthia Gibb) decides to do a Jessica Fletcher impression and conduct her own investigation. In the process, she repeatedly puts herself in danger unnecessarily and finds clues that trained investigators weren't able to find. The ending is priceless. The killer, while chasing our plucky heroine, has a prolonged monologue which explains every part of the mystery step-by-step (I did this, I did that, I was waiting for you when you went there), thus helping the audience tie up all the loose ends and helping to make the way for the inevitable happy ending. How cliché is that?

I gave it 2 because Cynthia Gibb is such a hotty that she made it bearable to watch but if it wasn't for her it would be a 1. There are some unintentionally humorous moments though like when Cynthia Gibb is running away from a murderer in the final moments and she is supposed to have a broken leg so she's running/hopping all over this vineyard on one foot, trying to hide and it just looks very silly. Also, in the final scenes she runs into a storage building and of course leaves the door wide open behind her. And why was the door not locked in the first place? I would think a building like that would normally have a lock on the door but I guess if it did, the movie would have to have ended right there. The script is like something written by a 9 year old would have written. Canadian shlock, I give it 2 snowmobiles out of 10.