User Reviews

As in her other novel, there is just too much going on here. Suddenly, Andie MacDowell is much more aggressive and really bitchy here. She is also quite a tramp. She is carrying on with the governor who came in when the old governor literally checked out.

The plot here is easily lost. We see a story that's questioning whether the Boston strangler is at it again. This seemingly good plot is soon lost when one of the assistants decides that to be able to solve crimes, you have to start doing them. Thereby, the bodies begin to pile up and our Barack Obama-Harold Ford look alike is almost framed for one of them.

We finally find out why Diahann Carroll acted in the way she did with the scene with the dogs. She placed a curse on the guy who was hurting them. While she took her nephew away, his parents succumbed to carbon monoxide poisoning. This should have been explained in the previous chapter.

Miss Carroll is as weird as ever and is always being threatened.

Ms. Cornwell should keep her plot direct and not have it all tie in within the last 5 minutes or so.

"Patricia Cornwell's At Risk" (a.k.a., "The Front," a.k.a. "Undercover") ultimately revolves around an unsympathetic Boston District Attorney named Monique "Money" Lamont. "Money" is a careerist seeking to move up the ladder from her power position in Boston to become Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Unfortunately, she is an oily politician from start to finish, as well as a crybaby, broadcasting that "I am not a victim," which is no more that posturing about her bleeding-heart victimhood.

The film's convoluted plot ties together "Money's" run for high office in Massachusetts with a decades-old cold case in Tennessee. The most interesting character in the film is Win "Geronimo" Garano, who becomes the lead on the case to solve the old crime and, reluctantly, aide "Money" on her way to the becoming governor.

Win works closely with Delma Sykes, the savvy Tennessee detective tracking down leads on the death of an elderly woman, a police officer, and an unknown man who was decapitated along the railway tracks. Somehow the leads discovered by Delma lead back to a perp in Boston. Win's dearest Nana is another interesting character who figures prominently in the action when her life appears to be endangered.

A major problem with the film was that the dialogue sounded "scripted," as opposed to deriving from character motivation. With the exception of Win, Delma, Nana, and a beautiful little dog, the cast of characters was generally sleazy and unpleasant. A standard montage of short clips at the end served to summarize the entire film. It was a long slog to finally get to that summary and bring down the curtain on this dud of a film. Monique "Money" Lamont may not have been a victim, but the viewer of this film certainly was!!!

This movie is so bad that I had to watch it in its entirety in hopes that it would get better. Daniel Sunjata & Patricia Cornwell are the names that would attract viewers. However, the plot is confusing, the characters are unbelievable & there is no chemistry among them. I'd rather see Sunjata on Rescue Me, than in this contrived piece. Patricia Cornwell has written many enjoyable mysteries. This interpretation is a travesty. Everyone seemed to be walking through their parts, as a "fill-in" for their "day jobs". I think it is an insult to viewers. Andie McDowell has never been a favorite, & she's playing the hair, as too many actresses are now doing. It's no substitute for a good performance. I say, pass on this. Watch a rerun of something else.

Unfortunately one is not permitted to vote with a zero or even a minus figure. I think this film has to rate as the worst I have ever seen. Slow. Poor pacing, bad acting, utterly ludicrous script. Why a supposedly intelligent, professional woman such as DA Lamont would have anything to do with the incredibly creepy Cal the student is beyond me. The guy apart from being sleazy and creepy, clearly has a major screw loose. No woman would give him access to anything. I was so disappointed, I've been reading Patricia Cornwell for years. This was a serious let down. The only actor who comes out of this mess with his dignity intact is Daniel Sunjata. You are left with the feeling he could have done a fantastic job, but does his best with the join the dots, painting by numbers script he has been given. Andie MacDowell is a disaster. It defies credulity that she would ever have achieved the post that she has. No one in their right mind would vote for her.

I go into these movies knowing that it's going to be corny, predictable, with a cast of so-so actors and very seldom will anything that happens be something you didn't see coming. Still I am still a sucker for them and every once in awhile you find a diamond in the rough. This was not the case in this movie.

I found the characters bland and unlikeable. Andie Macdonalds character I kept hoping would be knocked off. That's how little I felt for them. One part where the murderer was speaking to one of the investigators grandma and she realized he was the bad guy. You expected something to happen. They locked eyes each knowing what the other was thinking and then cut scene. When we went back there was police and an ambulance and I thought oh oh she got it. But no she was sitting in her living room talking to the investigators explaining what had happened and I'm sitting here going. Did I fast forward to far? Did they accidentally cut off the scene? Cause there seemed to be a whole scene missing. How did she get away? Did the people who were suppose to be guarding her break in? Was there a fight? Hellloooo...... Nothing not a word about it. She tells her grandson and his partner that this guy (at this point they still don't know who) was bad and wanted to be her grandson....... Uh OK. Now at this part I was now just waiting for the top of the hour to change the channel. Oh If that wasn't enough. The worst part and the part I didn't see coming was the two investigators who spent 3/4 of the movie fighting were all of a sudden all over each other. I will say I didn't see that coming. But not because it was written so well. You don't see it coming because there was nothing to see. The arguments they had had no heat behind them. You can't have sexual tension between 2 people with no heat. Now whether this was because of the poor acting or the script I couldn't tell you. Each was as bad as the other. And thinking about it I think it was done because they didn't know what else to do to fill in the time. I found that in a few of their scenes. Things not needed to see or know but the writers didn't know how else to fill the 2 hours. Personally I think they should have opted for an extra commercial. I'm not going to summarize the movie cause you can read that on your own. Plus it's a bit fuzzy in my head. Most things are when there that forgettable. It's a hit and miss for movies like this. Take my advice and give this one a miss. but if you do decide to give it a try make sure you are comfy in bed, dogs have been let out and your bladder is empty. You'll be asleep long before the credits roll.