Robert J. Maxwell
Anne Rule is a first-rate true-crime writer, both concise and colorful, and she wrote the book this TV movie is based on. It's too bad that the people behind this movie, anxious for a buck, rush to Canada and shoot the story so carelessly for Lifetime Movies.The story itself isn't exactly epic. A narcissistic dentist (Lowe) shoots his wife and sets it up as a suicide. The wife's sister is convinced that it was murder and eggs the local police on. (Nice performance by Michelle Hurd as the determined but straight-laced cop.) A lengthy investigation brings out the fact that one of the dentist's girl friends in college wound up dead in the same manner. Okay, Doc, open wide now.The director, Norma Bailey, tries some original camera angles. Sometimes they work -- a couple of overhead shots that break up the predictable parade of images -- and sometimes they don't. It doesn't add much to a scene of a couple walking down a hallway and having an ordinary conversation when you tilt the camera thirty degrees. There are situations that call for such striking effects, but a chat in a hallways isn't one of them.Rob Lowe is Rob Lowe. Everyone says he's handsome so I suppose he's handsome but there are times when I could be convinced that his character's love of self is entirely real. You know when the audience is first tipped off that there's something queer about the grieving husband? When he shows up to answer questions at the police station, says he's ready to be taken to the interrogation room, and says politely, to nobody in particular, "Coffee black, no cream," and one of the detectives stares after him, stupefied. And he insists on being addressed as "doctor," whereas most non-MDs get that behind them when they're out of their professional settings.When I think of all the pain inflicted on me over the years by those sadists in white coats -- you know the patter, "This may sting a little," and "I'm going to have to be a bad boy now," -- I was glad to see him convicted. You hear me? -- GLAD! I hope that prison has a dentist who is a ham-handed oaf at his job and who suffers from a perpetual hangover. Immanent justice. It was good enough for Aristotle.
OJT
I was caught up watching this right away, reading on the screen this was a true story, which immediately takes off with a neighbor opening th front door after a knock one late night, finding the neighboring kid with bare feet covered in blood. The blood is from the mother, which seems to have shot herself. Then the film tells both the continuation of the effect this has on the relatives and friends, as we also neatly are told in retrospect what happened up to the tragic event of finding her shot on the bed.The film is very good hand work, and the acting is excellent, especially from Rob Lowe, playing the dentist husband Bart Corbin is excellent. No wonder his career is back on track. This shows his acting skills. Stephanie von Pfetten, which plays the dead woman which we also get to know retrospectively does great. Her sister is played by Lauren Holley, also doing that role great. We're neatly introduced to the fact of a family not functioning, with the parents blaming each other.The good hand work is showed in the film's pace, the storytelling and even in the narration and music. We also find the story building up suspension about what happened up to her death, where several is involved. The sister believes Bart killed her. And a female detective, played by Michele Hurd, is doing a great investigative job. We follow the investigation in an interesting way, unveiling the story.When I went to rate this on IMDb I was really baffled by the low score. I expected this to have a rating of 6 or 7, but 4,8??? I really think the ratings here tend to be very right, but this is an exception of the rule. I think this might be due to no dramatic ending. Well, this is a drama, not a fictional crime story. Well, it's far better than this rating in all aspects, and is well worth a watch. A good TV- movie about a true story.
suzihands
Finished the Book this movie is based on several days ago and decided to watch the movie based on that book. I like Rob Lowe as an actor and Bart Corbin, who Rob portrays, was apparently handsome but not in Rob's league in my opinion. The movie changes several facts, the main one being that after he murdered his wife, Jennifer, he took refuge with his gullible brother, he refused to come back to the crime scene, refused to see his sons and refused to have the police investigators interview him. He did not turn up outside the house he shared with his estranged wife and his two young sons and he did not tell the police at the scene he wanted to see his sons and then they could interview him. No way did this narcissistic, poor excuse of a human being, husband and father, have those boys in his care and no way did he try to abscond with them. He was way too concerned for himself to think about anyone else in the Universe, let alone the World.I was very disappointed with the Tele-Movie because I had read the factual book from front to back BUT if you haven't read the book or know too much about the case then by all means watch this movie and enjoy it for what it is. It is well written, well acted and a very interesting story. The son's names are changed in the Movie also, which I found odd because the books and reports name the boys quite openly. I hope the real Bart Corbin stays in jail for the rest of his days and only leaves in a wooden box.This movie deserves an 8 if you haven't any knowledge about the facts, only a 4 if you do.
edwagreen
The dentist who had everything except the fact that he couldn't take rejection. Rob Lowe plays this type of guy to the hilt in the true story.His frustrated wife begins an online relationship with a guy named Chris from St. Louis. Imagine, her surprise, when it turns out that Chris is actually a lesbian who has been looking for a relationship since her last one broke up.The movie is intriguing. Did the dentists wife kill herself as it first appeared or was there foul play? The picture wobbles when it's determined that while in college, the good dentist had a girlfriend who allegedly killed herself as well. We've seen this pattern before in films.We also have Lauren Holly, the victim's sister who suspects her brother-in-law from the start. Nothing new here as well except for the fact that the film is admirably done.
AD
