source: Witness to Murder

Sauce

Hallmark used to stand for the highest of high quality programming. A Hallmark Special was something my parents always let me stay up for. However, after watching the "movie", it is a shame to see they have sunk to the lowest of lows. There's no mystery here, only bad writing, bad acting, bad storytelling, and the cheapest production values I've ever seen. I guess I'm just an old fuddie duddie but after watching this, it makes me long for the good old days of Hallmark.

This plot has been used over and over again with murder mysteries and it was no surprise. I knew what was happening as soon as the shots rang out. While the previous installment of Darrow and Darrow seemed sweet between the 2 characters Claire and Miles, this time I found him to be irritating and annoying. He talks too fast, his courtroom manners were all over the place and he wasn't even addressing the jury. Claire rambled and the judge really was just a mockery of our justice system. Since this is filmed in Canada perhaps they do it differently there. The writers really were lazy with this one and I doubt I'll watch another Darrow and Darrow if there are more in the works. SPOILER - whenever someone is killed by mistake & the nasty "intended" victim is just "wounded" ... well you know the rest.

Coming into this particular movie, I was a fan of Darrow Mysteries. Tom Cavanaugh usually makes such a good quirky character. And usually he and Williams-Paisley play well off each other. Not in this one. There are so many things wrong with the story I don't have the patience to list them. Not the least of these is the developing romance where the characters also act like Middle Schoolers. The court scenes come off like the juvenile's take on a Perry Mason episode. Given the writing, it is hard to judge the acting or the directing, but I tend to think the directing isn't much better. The mystery has it's good moments, but it's hard to appreciate them given everything else.

Claire ends up representing the woman who helped besmirch her mother's character and caused her to loose her job at her old firm. But when Claire and her mother witness a murder of two other's from the firm...they are not convinced that she is guilty of that as well! This was an interesting mystery and results in a kiss and an agreement to "see one another". Funny courtroom romance. Not in the ballpark of Legal Eagles but light and breezy...fun to watch.

6/10 - a worthwhile addition to the captivating legal/mystery Darrow & Darrow franchise