iMurders concerns a string of "chat room murders" where a psychopath is terminating members of a "Facespace" chat room, seemingly able to move across the country and be at several places at once(..if you believe the far-fetched twist, that is)in order to do so. iMurders has several stories ongoing, quite over-plotted, focusing on those members of the chat room, their lives. Gabrielle Anwar is a Hollywood actress whose face was scarred after an accident in a gym. Billy Dee Williams is Anwar's lawyer, negotiating a settlement on her behalf and may just be behind the murder of a beautiful woman who was part of the Facespace chat room. Terri Colombino just moved into a New Jersey apartment and makes friends with a worrisome, nosy landlord, played by Joanne Baron. Miranda Kwok is communicating to her psychiatrist Charles Durning(..who seems worse for wear, his age starting to interfere with his abilities to perform)about her angry, malevolent thoughts towards the one responsible for the death of her lover, April. William Forsythe's storyline is given a great deal of screen time, as he portrays a professor carrying on an affair with his secretary; he is an active participant in the chat room, often shooing his wife away(Margaret Colin)when she seeks quality time with him. Forsythe is eyeing a dean's position, and juggling his affair as well. Frank Grillo is an ex-cop haunted by the ritualistic slaying of his detective brother, and who falls in love with Colombino, his neighbor. Grillo's sister is an FBI agent, Brooke Lewis, out to catch the one responsible for her brother's homicide as well as the chat room killer. Tony Todd is Lewis' partner. The plot suggests Colombino might be the killer because she's a traveling corporate event planner, her frequent flier miles offering up the likelihood that she might be able to be in those places where the murders transpired.
As I mentioned earlier, "iMurders" has a hell of a lot going on so there are bound to be loose ends or story lines which are never quite satisfactorily settled. I'm not sure why "iMurders" devotes so much time to Forsythe's scandalous story as it never really relates to the psycho plot thread..he's merely a member of the chat room, with little else attaching him to the thriller plot.
Billy Dee Williams and Anwar's plot is uninspired, injected here and there into the film(..there's a stabbing to the chest that's mentioned almost in passing, although such a development would be more interesting visualized on screen instead of treated as a mere afterthought)as if they were included because of their names might carry weight when mentioned on the DVD box. The meat of the film is Colombino and Grillo's romance and how it is tested by the chat room murders and his psychological hangups.
I believe the film does itself in because it attempts to cover way too much ground in 90+ minutes..it's nearly impossible to feature so many characters and sub-plots in such a limited amount of time and do them proper justice. An opening scenario involving a husband having an affair, caught by his wife with a mistress, resulting in a tragic suicide, plays an important role in the chat room murders.
Billy Dee Williams has a role of substantial worth in regards to how his character affects the lives of certain individuals(..as it contributes to twists in the film), but it's mostly mentioned rather than shown(..as if he was only paid for a certain amount of days, with the filmmakers forced into adopting creative ways to include his character in the plot without actually having the actor available). To be honest, the twist involving the identity and motive of the clever psycho, is a load of hogwash that seemed to be whipped up on the fly.
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