Stan has it all. A beautiful wife, a loving son, and a successful dental career. He is also hiding a dark secret involving murder. Whatever you do, don't book an Appointment for a Killing.
We meet Stan, a dentist who is married to a beautiful woman named Joyce. He is involved in an insurance scheme with an accomplice (and ex-wife) named Gloria. Gloria marries men with insurance policies (and parents with insurance policies), and Stan kills the parents and the husband splitting the money with her. One day, Joyce catches Stan having an affair with Gloria and decides to break up with him. He pressures her to let him keep their large house or else he'll fight for sole custody which forces Joyce to get her own small apartment with her son. When he admits to killing a man during a night together, Joyce reaches out to the police to help her put him away. Along the way, she and the police discover that his deadly insurance schemes have been going on for over 20 years. With the apartment bugged, can Joyce get a confession out of Stan? Or will he get away with murder?
I enjoyed the cat and mouse aspect of this made for TV film which is based off of a true story. In the film, Joyce did a very good job trying to get Stan to admit his crimes once the house was bugged. And in the finale when she herself is wearing a wire, it was a very clever way in which she got him to reveal the truth. As a movie though, this one is a bit of a slow moving almost boring film. The acting is what saves it from being a complete mess. As a viewer, I just wanted the truth to come out and to watch it play out in an hour and a half movie was a bit dry to sit through.
Like I said, the acting is very good. Corbin Bernsen plays the successful dentist lead character, I saw similarities to his iconic horror role in The Dentist (1996). Markie Post is the true star of this one. She plays all the beats of Joyce and what she went through. We get sheer terror, but also a creative detective side and a softer side considering she shares a son with this monster. It was nice to see Jeanne Cooper who was the legendary Katherine Chancellor on The Young and the Restless for decades. She plays Stan's mother which is a good fit considering she was the real life mother of Corbin Bernsen.
Overall, Appointment for a Killing is a very average made-for TV movie from the early 90's. It was based off a true story, which made it satisfying to see Stan get his comeuppance in the end.
5/10
