User Reviews

This show is a perfect example of what not to do if you are a police officer and you want to lock up criminals.

First off, the officer involves a minor in a police investigation putting her life in jeopardy. Second, the reason it ended with the father only getting convicted of soliciting a murder for hire is that all the evidence that was gathered by the daughter was probably thrown out of court, since the second the police officer suggested she be his *agent* anything they did was an illegal search and seizure.

I gave the movie 5 out of 10 because it was slightly interesting but I spent most my time laughing at how many mistakes this police officer made.

This has a slightly different angle. A woman is murdered. Everyone has an alibi and they can't prove anything. Faced with a closed case, the detective finds out the husband is having an affair. Unable to prove he is the killer, the detective gets her daughter to help investigate her father for the crime. It's quite scary because she is just a teenage girl and makes mistakes.

The strangle ending is a bit clichéd. But it was refreshing they never found the actual shooter. Feel good element that she actually has a different biological father.

Worth a watch.

I walked in the house to find my wife watching this. It was about half-way through and she was less than impressed; she said she was bored but could find nothing else on to watch. So, I sat watched the second half of the movie with her. This movie is awful. The script-writer, evidently, has no knowledge of police procedure, he certainly showed little indication that he knew anything about criminal law and police. Even though the character who is main police officer involved gets reprimanded for mishandling procedure by endangering a minor, his boss, evidently the chief of detectives, allows him to enter the family home alone! (Right at the moment of being reprimanded, the detective realized the girl must have met up with her step father while retrieving the gun for the police.) I found this whole plot device ludicrous; he had probable cause to go in to search the home. When he went in knowing the teen girl was in trouble, he went in alone! Wretched. Internal Affairs were watching him, but they should have also been watching the entire department. Overly dramatic too.

This movie starts out with a bang. No pun intended. The first scene is very dark and shocking and very personal. It sets a tone for the movie. The first fifteen minutes has a lot involved. But as the movie progresses, there are issues that arise. Tom Cavanaugh and Boris Kodjoe are both good actors, but I'm thinking this movie looked better on paper.

First off, the glaring one. In what world would a police officer be able to use a minor to help with his case? I like how when Alex originally goes to the station about her mom's case, they won't give her info because she's a minor. Why didn't they just make her an 18 yr old college freshman? I'm sitting here where Detective Moran is telling Alex don't tell anyone what they're doing. Come on, guy. Like that wouldn't come back to bite you? Not to mention (well others have mentioned), she can't just take stuff on behalf of the police as evidence. TV's portrayal of law and order is how people in real life get hemmed up bc "tv said they could." I'm still early in the movie, but there's no way any of this would pass in court.

Where were Mom's parents? Siblings? There were no scenes of Nick (father) telling the wife's family and we didn't see them at all. This girl taking on mothering responsibilities and being allowed to was kind of crazy. But somehow she also has time for track. Where's grandma or family to help out? It would make more sense for a family member to come help out and have the suspicions. I could see the mom confiding in her mom or sisters or brothers that she was having marital problems and was considering divorce. The detective basically planted the idea in the daughter's head.

I have no problem with who is obviously playing the villain, but the character barely has a personality, so at this point in the movie, there's no sort of indication of how this could happen. He doesn't come off as Father of the Year, or obsessive about his family and the status quo (he gets rid of mom's stuff immediately for crying out loud), he lets the daughter play mom to her siblings. This movie is terrible. It would have been better for the movie to have him be all these things and have the facade slowly unravel under the pressure. There were no real scenes of Nick "acting" like the devastated husband who just wanted to be there for his kids. In Suspicion, the ending could have gone either way, but the entire time we are questioning events. In Dial M for Murder...you know the villain but his own lies get him caught without the characters trying too hard or even believing him capable. This set up is nothing like either of those films.

Another failure, when a spouse is a suspect in real life, most of the time, they aren't just "left alone." Nick has yet to be brought back in for questioning, asked about his marriage, the affair, etc. There have been some extremely high profile cases where the spouse was very much publicly under the investigative eye. This entire investigation is dependent on the MINOR child. Good grief! I'm finally at the climax and this terrible detective sent the minor child to retrieve a murder weapon and then tells his boss about it and asks him why he hasn't sent anyone there. WTF!! On top of the obvious danger, it would be inadmissible in court. This is basic and you don't need to be a lawyer to know this.

P. S. What was the point of the younger kids? Just so that they could give Alex a different father? Why did the mom lie and allow Alex to believe Nick was her dad? She was clearly at least 3-4 years older than the next kid. Why did the dad stay away and allow another man to raise his child? Then he's here at the end like he hadn't been missing her whole life? This movie is a MESS.

P. S. S. OK, so I'm sure by the time the father went to jail some other family came around... possibly with a lawyer.? And yet they let this girl go to an IA hearing by herself? This movie is so crazy. Also, the voiceover at the end...the detective saying he would do the same thing over again...aka endanger a minor??? WHO WROTE THIS MOVIE? Maybe next time it'll get the minor killed.

One realistic thing is the sister and brother not believing their dad could be a killer and not speaking to their sister. That's believable. And the fact that there was even an IA hearing makes me wonder if they started there and worked backwards to have all the absurd things happen that lead to a hearing.

This review is my long-winded way of saying skip this movie. This movie airs often and I finally caught it. Not worth it.

Interesting, but uneven drama where a woman is blown away in front of her pet shop. She leaves behind her husband and 3 children. Naturally, when daddy has been having an affair for 2 years, attention shifts to him. Of course, he has an alibi, but he could have paid someone to go bang!bang!

The killing seems to have the most impact on the eldest daughter, a high school senior. She now has to become a mother to the 2 younger children, but is soon asked by a police detective to spy on her father so as to gather evidence against him.

What she finds is most perplexing. There is always a birth certificate in these situations.

Even though the detective experienced his own personal loss,why would he jeopardize her life in order to reach a conclusion to this case?

The punishment meted out for this crime proves how ridiculous sentencing can be. Guess who pulled the trigger? Only the killer knows that one. How come the sentenced one didn't open his mouth? There is something lacking here.

After the senseless killing of her mother, who died in an execution-style shooting, young Alex Carlton joins forces with Detective Joseph Moran to solve the mystery of this tragic murder.

The strength of the film was the bonding of the detective and the young woman. The detective had lost his sister to a killing that was never solved. Detective Moran is now determined to solve the Carlton case.

Alex is faced with the dilemma of assisting the detective in locating evidence pointing to her father as the killer. While conflicted, Alex makes the conscious choice of searching the home for evidence. Her principal motivation is to honor her mother with the truth.

A mysterious figure named Jack Brewster shows up at the funeral of Helen Carlton. Alex witnesses her father's irritation at the presence of good ol' "Uncle Jack," and this will be a clue that leads to others in the case.

The father's behavior is very strange when he decides to clean house right away, getting rid of all the memories of Helen. He also blurts out odd sayings, such as "these things happen" related to his wife's murder. Alex also discovers that her father has had an ongoing affair with a waitress named Ruthie Webber and that he has recently purchased a Mustang for her.

The action is well paced, and the film is carried by the two outstanding performers who play Alex Carlton and Detective Joseph Moran. If one thing stands out in the film, it is the strength of character of Alex, who is definitely one courageous young woman.