Valta & viettelys

I chuckled when I saw the shot of the CN Tower. While obviously filmed in Toronto (to anyone who knows Toronto that's obvious even without the CN Tower shot) the whole movie is set in an American city. Riordan (Gregory Harrison) is a "state's attorney." Now, if there is such a thing as an iconic image of Toronto, it's surely the CN Tower, which means the shot establishes that - whatever US city is supposed to be being portrayed - this is Canada. It doesn't bother me that Toronto's standing in for a U.S. city, but why make it so painfully obvious?

Now, if that were the only problem with this movie I suppose it wouldn't matter too much - but it's not the only problem. It's an obviously made- for-TV soap opera type movie with a soap opera type cast (with the exception of, perhaps, Cybill Shepherd.) When two of your other big names, though, are Gregory Harrison and Adrienne Barbeau - well, that says something! Riordan is that state's attorney, who's just accepted the position as head of some major corporation that's in some type of trouble. The guy he replaces ends up murdered, and Riordan almost immediately resparks an old flame with the old guy's young wife (Shepherd.) The issue is who did the killing and why. There's a lot of potential suspects, and there's enough uncertainty about who did it to keep you watching, but it still isn't very good to be honest. There's a lot of smoke-filled rooms and shady, suspicious characters but it's not exactly gripping drama or suspense. If you're into made-for-TV soap operas, go for it. 3/10