A Crime of Passion (2003 TV Movie) User Reviews

a joke

[blanche-2 · 4/10 · 16 August 2013]

"A Crime of Passion" is another deadly Canadian film version of a Mary Higgins Clark novel, this one starring Cynthia Gibb, Gordon Currie, Alexandra Kamp, and Tom Butler.

This one is about a wealthy young woman, Freddie Dumay (Gibb) who has a winery, which she co-owns with Thomas Shipman (Butler). After a party, Shipman's unhappy wife is murdered. Shipman then takes up with a glamorous, shapely younger woman, Arabella (Kamp); Freddie has her investigated and finds out she's a con woman who usually works with a partner. Tragedy strikes a second time, and Freddie is in the position of trying to find out the truth.

If there's one thing I detest, it's people in movies doing stupid things so that the scriptwriters can put them in danger. Case in point: Freddie gets a line on Arabella's partner and decides to confront him by going alone to a cabin in the woods at night. I doubt even an armed policewoman would do that. Later, when she's broken her ankle, is in bed and woozy from being given drugs, she decides to get up, take her crutches, and try to get down the stairs. Ridiculous. I won't even go into the denouement, which seemed to last for an hour.

This could have been a decent mystery had it been better written. Instead, it's silly.

it was ok

[WankerReviews · 5/10 · 2 October 2019]

Started off promising ended okay. Story didn't go in the way I'd hoped. Still watchable. I'm glad the culprit wasn't predictable.

an okay who-dunnit

[ksf-2 · 6/10 · 31 July 2023]

The 2003 one, not the barbara stanwyck one. Although the older one is quite good. Here, when a winemaker's business is threatened by her partner's new, young, girfriend, she confronts the business partner. And of course, he does not appreciate the advice. There's already been one suspicious death in the family, and frederica wants to stop any more from occurring. But more deaths happen! Some clues, lots of suspects. But frederica and her friend dale seem to be doing all the leg work. It's okay. Some acting and some scenes are just over the top or unlikely. Would she really walk into a trap like that? And the clues all seem to point to one person, so it looks like a frame-up. Some suspense, for sure. It's a little hallmark-y. But it's always fun trying to figure out who-dunnit. Directed by charles wilkinson. It's okay.

Another crumby Canadian content, probably shot in Vancouver

[randy_kay · 2/10 · 20 June 2011]

I gave it 2 because Cynthia Gibb is such a hotty that she made it bearable to watch but if it wasn't for her it would be a 1. There are some unintentionally humorous moments though like when Cynthia Gibb is running away from a murderer in the final moments and she is supposed to have a broken leg so she's running/hopping all over this vineyard on one foot, trying to hide and it just looks very silly. Also, in the final scenes she runs into a storage building and of course leaves the door wide open behind her. And why was the door not locked in the first place? I would think a building like that would normally have a lock on the door but I guess if it did, the movie would have to have ended right there. The script is like something written by a 9 year old would have written. Canadian shlock, I give it 2 snowmobiles out of 10.

Ridiculous mystery has a few unintentional laughs

[highwaytourist · 2/10 · 13 August 2011]

Well, here is one of those feisty businesswoman-in-distress thrillers. Here, the a young, attractive partner in a successful winery is shocked after the wife of her business partner dies under suspicious circumstances. As usual in films like this, she (Cynthia Gibb) decides to do a Jessica Fletcher impression and conduct her own investigation. In the process, she repeatedly puts herself in danger unnecessarily and finds clues that trained investigators weren't able to find. The ending is priceless. The killer, while chasing our plucky heroine, has a prolonged monologue which explains every part of the mystery step-by-step (I did this, I did that, I was waiting for you when you went there), thus helping the audience tie up all the loose ends and helping to make the way for the inevitable happy ending. How cliché is that?

So stupid

[BlurryWitch · 2/10 · 20 October 2022]

Making movie characters do utterly stupid things that no sane person would ever do in real life is such lazy writing it's unforgivable.

My review would end here but I'm required to write 465 characters more so here you have: the acting is bad, the plot is stupid, the end chase is so ridiculous that I skipped forward and as a result I missed the explanation of why the murderer wanted to kill our heroine exactly. I still wonder. Not that it matters much. That's what murderers do, right, going around murdering people, and they always want to murder the hero at the end of the movie. And of course they fail. Whoops, spoiler. We didn't expect that at all, did we?

Yawn.

Ha! I knew it.

[crazy_smilers · 6/10 · 31 March 2017]

Well I enjoyed the whodunit. The guessing game. I found Freddy's acting to be a bit difficult to bear. Especially near the beginning. I am amused that who I had joked had committed the first murder is actually who it was. Time seemed to get a bit confusing. What I thought would have been like the next day or something may have been weeks. I do not know. It seemed things jumped ahead often but then it wasn't as far into the future as it would seem. People just move quickly with drastic events in their lives.

Could it get any worse?

[rinkrat · 1/10 · 12 May 2003]

I was so excited about seeing this film simply because of Gordon Currie. I hadn't seen him in anything in a while and had been impressed by his performance (and choice of films) in "Waydowntown" and "Blood and Donuts". However, I was so disappointed by this film. Watching this was like watching a bad episode of Falcon Crest. Predictable, shallow, and a plot line that has been done a million times before....to death. However, Gordon, I still have very high hopes for you. A new agent might be in order, however.

Wtf.

[ashbykevin · 1/10 · 3 January 2021]

Just seen it with my mother and at the end of the movie the female killer confronts the innocent female lead in the kitchen, The next scene shows the leads husband in his car going to her aid, The next scene shows him running into the winery and finding his wife hanging off a 5 meter high wine vat. She jumps into his arms and the scene then cuts to a living room and thats it. No sign of the female killer or what happened from the kitchen to the winery.

A very entertaining murder mystery

[boardindude · 10/10 · 16 May 2003]

A very entertaining murder mystery. I watched from start to finish, was sure I knew who 'done it', was surprised by the outcome. Compared to many other TV murder mystery offerings this was really good. Cynthia Gibb was very sympathetic. Alexandra Kamp was ultra sexy as the bad girl. Gordon Currie & Sebastian Spence were also a lot of fun to watch. The material was a bit too conventional at times. The script could have used a few more twists, but it seemed that everyone involved worked very hard to make the show as engaging as it was. When it turns up on late night TV, I'll watch it again.

Great and exciting murder mystery!

[bookandcandle · 10/10 · 1 February 2013]

This was a great and exciting murder mystery. It kept me guessing the entire time who the murderer was. I thought I knew for sure who it was, but I was wrong. There were many twists and turns in this thriller. The acting was superb and I enjoyed watching every one of the actors. They gave a wonderful performance. I would definitely watch this movie when it comes on again. I gave this movie a 10 because it was a 10!

Hallmark is doing an excellent job with these mysteries. Please keep them coming. Just wish they would turn off the music when the actors are speaking, so you can hear every word clearly. The music is louder than the voices.