Presumed Dead (2006)

Laughably bad Lifetime Channel thriller about determined cop Sherilyn Fenn trying to prove that a famous mystery writer is actually a murderer. Oh, and Fenn's character is an aspiring mystery writer herself who also happens to be getting over the recent death of her husband. This made-for-cable movie has so many cliches I can't even begin to list them all (a detective told to lay off the case, a defendant serving as their own attorney in court, a cop having their badge taken away, etc. and so on and so forth). The only reason I watched this film is that I'd set my DVR to record anything Sherilyn Fenn appears in, and although she does her best with what she's got, this film is a mess beyond saving. And full disclosure, I watched this film on my iPad picture-in-picture, which is really all it deserved.

The year is coming to a close and I have a sure winner for the worst of the year. The only movie I voted 1 in 2010.I took notes of my thoughts (as I usually do) but after 15 minutes I had listed so many problems that I decided to stop it: the list had gotten way too long. From that point on I just sat back and watched, asking myself if I should trust my eyes and ears: could a movie be that bad?The story is ridiculous. Written by Keith Shaw under the name of Lindsay James (would that be the name he signs when he writes something that even he is ashamed of?)Should I bother to disclose this? Well, the person we think will end up being right is - surprise! - right. Evidences are tampered, a venal "expert" is bought off - selling his "expertise" to the highest bidder -, a forensic lab technician also breaks the law, but the end justify all those less than laudable means. And, talking about laudable, the person who orchestrates all that is commended for doing that. (In 2 other movies I've watched recently where the cops planted or tampered with evidence, at least they ended up dead and looked upon in shame). I can only hope that law enforcement in my city works a little bit differently.Direction is confusing. The director tries hard to makes us think in certain directions intending to surprise us. It certainly didn't work in my case. Performances are laughable. I actually liked John Tench as the butler. Do you think you ever saw a stereotypical butler? The butler that jokes are made about? Well, think again and watch him. His scenes made the movie look like a spoof of horror movies. I thought Leslie Nilsen would show up next.I may keep the DVD: it provides valuable lessons on how NOT to make a movie.

**SPOILERS** In its trying to be different by putting in as many sub-plots that can fit into a 90 minute movie, I counted at least five, the made for TV movie "Presumed Dead" gets so confusing that by the time it's finally over you know less about its story then what you knew when it first started!The movie starts off with a crazed man, who looks like he's hypnotizes, running around the woods with a large butcher knife, dripping with blood, chasing this terrified young woman. The man who's arrested later turns out to be America's top murder mystery writer Seth Harmon, Durgan Regeh, and the woman, who ends up missing by jumping into a nearby stream, Harmon's protégé Paige Stevenson, Rhonda Dent. Getting herself on the case despite the objections of her boss Captain Dade, Blu Mankuma,is the very annoying and bitchy lady detective Mary Anne Cooper, Sherilyn Fenn.Even though "Coop", as Det. Cooper is is known by her fellow cops, is supposed to be on convalescent leave since her husband, also a cop, was killed in a hold-up earlier in the year she still manages, by her constantly pestering Capt Dade, to not only get on the case but become the officer in charge of it! This later helps Harmon, who opted to defend himself at his trial, to get off by Coop in her making a fool of herself, by testifying for the prosecution, while subjected to Harmon's whithering cross-examination.It's after Harmon is found innocent that the movie starts to go in all different directions in trying to tie up all the loose ends in to what exactly happened to Paige Stevenson who's still on the police blotter as a missing person. And just what exactly the now freed Seth Hermon had to do with her being missing or even possibly, if Paige's body is ever found, murder!***SPOILERS**** It soon becomes evident, at least to Coop, that Paige had ghost written Harmon's latest blockbuster murder mystery novel "Death Row Confessions". Paige now wanting to get the credit in writing that novel was going to go public in exposing Harmon for the fraud that he is. Soon Coop got another piece of information, on a typed message on her cellphone, that had to do with a previous novel-called "The Mocking Glass Murder"-that Harmon wrote, before he started suffering from writers block, some time ago. It was in that novel where Harmon describes a murder that actually took place which-now hold on to your hats-he in fact participated in!***MAJOR SPOILER**** The fictitious novel " The Mocking Glass Murder" very factually described the true story of the vicious suffocation murder of Heather Mason, Tracy Trueman, who just happened to be Paige's mom! The question now is if Paige is in fact dead then who's supplying Coop with all this explosive information that only the missing and presumed dead Paige Stevenson who witnessed her moms murder, while hiding in a closet, could possibly have known!

Presumed Dead starred Actor Duncan Regehr as crime-writer Seth Harmon.In the opening scene Seth was seen chasing after Paige with a bloody kitchen knife. Then Seth was charged with Paige's murder by Detectives, Seth testified in his own defense and was found innocent. Paige was actually being hidden in the woods by Seth, his chauffeur Tyson and a hunter, The detective who believed that Seth had been guilty didn't give up trying to prove his guilt. Paige confides in one of the Detectives named Maryanne that Seth had killed her mother, and that Paige had actually written a book that Seth took the credit for. It was presumed that Paige was dead so I believe that the title fits,