Perfect Murder, Perfect Town: JonBenét and the City of Boulder (2000) (TV)

User Rating:

5.9/10   

Director:

Lawrence Schiller

Writers (WGA):

Lawrence Schiller (book)
Tom Topor (teleplay)

Release Date:

27 February 2000 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama

Plot:

Plot Keywords:

Colorado | Child Murder | Adaptation Directed By Original Author | Based On True Story | Based On Book

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Kris Kristofferson	...	Lou Smit
Marg Helgenberger	...	Patsy Ramsey
Ronny Cox	...	John Ramsey
Ken Howard	...	Alex Hunter
John Heard	...	Larry Mason
Peter Friedman	...	Peter Hofstrom
Scott Cohen	...	Steve Thomas
Deirdre Lovejoy	...	Detective Linda Arndt
Sean Whalen	...	Jeff Shapiro
John Rubinstein	...	Rev. Hoverstock
Jane Powell	...	Dance Instructor
Dennis Boutsikaris	...	Chief Koby
J.C. MacKenzie
Murphy Guyer	...	John Eller
Margo Martindale

Runtime:

178 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Netherlands:AL | Australia:M

Filming Locations:

Boulder, Colorado, USA

Company:

Fox Television Studios

"Do...you...have...a case?"

Excellent docu-drama, a four-hour movie for television chronicling a baffling real-life murder investigation from 1996, makes its case right from the start: that it is irrelevant how much time has transpired since the actual crime (irrelevant, also, how many years have passed since this movie originally aired in 2000). A compulsively watchable and gripping tapestry of lives, it doesn't matter how resigned the viewer may be to the fact this headline-making yarn is pretty much unsolvable--it is done with enormous skill and a keen-eyed sensibility. Director Lawrence Schiller and writer Tom Torpor, working from Lawrence Schiller's book, have an awful lot of material to sift through, and dozens of complicated characters to introduce us to, yet they do so with clarity and aplomb. The crime scene, a murdered 6-year-old girl in Boulder, Colorado, begins a chain of events that leads to lies, deception, bruised egos, terminated careers, fallen reputations, lawsuits, and so much ill will and bad blood that Boulder is probably still reeling from the after-shocks of this case. It would be next to impossible to eliminate scenes or characters without leaving unanswered questions behind, so the running time is justified; still, I did grow tired of a sub-plot involving a "bottom feeder" reporter from a tabloid journal, and Kris Kristofferson's homicide detective Lou Smit never quite comes to life (Smit stood steadfastly behind the child's accused parents, and had a nifty summation of events which he proclaimed in a private session, yet much of the time we don't where Smit stands with some of the evidence gathered--or why he seemed to believed the parents' story from the get-go). The film is frustrating and yet uncanny, well-informed and yet cloudy. The case has not been solved--and the movie isn't satisfying on an emotional level as a result--yet the release we want to get from it is transposed into mind-boggling food for thought. The large cast is superb, particularly Ken Howard as District Attorney Alex Hunter (who waged a war of words and actions with the Colorado Police Dept.) and Marg Helgenberger as the child's erratic mother. The wealthy parents, who stonewalled the police for four months and seemed to lead everyone in charge around by the hand, are two of the most fascinating murder witnesses in criminal history, and this is most likely the best examination of them we'll ever get on film.