The Accidental Witness (2006)

Victor Sandeman is a senior partner with Brunel Global Securities. He is experiencing major financial problems, ones that can be solved if the planned $100 million merger of the company ... See full summary »

Director:

Kristoffer Tabori

Writer:

Michael Rhodes

Stars:

Natasha Gregson Wagner, Currie Graham, Aaron Pearl

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Natasha Gregson Wagner	...	Christine Sternwald
Currie Graham	...	Victor Sandeman
Aaron Pearl	...	Jeff Monroe
Scott Hylands	...	Detective Bill Malone
David Lewis	...	David Brunel
Enid-Raye Adams	...	Maggie Wexler
Sarah-Jane Redmond	...	Mary Lane Ferris (as Sarah Jane Redmond)
Don MacKay	...	Raymond Brunel
Peter Benson	...	Joseph Brockway
Ty Olsson	...	Detective Ed Reigert
Linda Darlow	...	Detective Eleanor Douglas
Brenda Crichlow	...	Dorothy Adler (as Brenda M. Crichlow)
Linda Ko	...	Dr. Jetwan
Krista Morin	...	Erika
Louise Grant	...	Dog lady

Storyline

Victor Sandeman is a senior partner with Brunel Global Securities. He is experiencing major financial problems, ones that can be solved if the planned $100 million merger of the company takes place. However, the company's owner, Raymond Brunel, is against the merger. Thinking that he can overpower the ineffective David Brunel, Raymond's grandson and the company's heir apparent, Victor murders the elderly Raymond (trying to make it look like a death by natural causes) so that he can go ahead with the planned merger. The one glitch in the murder is a possible witness, Christine Sternwald. A paralegal and aspiring lawyer, Christine is just putting her life back together following a sexual assault three years earlier. When Victor and Christine meet shortly after the murder in a fender bender with Victor driving the deceased Raymond's car, Victor is forced to identify himself to her as Raymond Brunel. Because of this chance meeting and the possibility that she did see the murder take place...

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Plot Keywords:

murder | financial problems | lawyer | car | knowledge | 

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Genres:

Thriller

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Certificate:

TV-14

Details

Official Sites:

Lifetime TV

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

2006 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Killing of a Stranger

Filming Locations:

Granville Square, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Company Credits

Production Co:

120dB Films, Blue André Productions, Legacy Filmworks

Technical Specs

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

This film was previously titled "The Killing Of A Stranger".

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Goofs

Near the end of the movie Victor pistol-whips Chris. As she lays on the floor her head position changes between shots.

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Connections

References The $64,000 Question (1955)

User Reviews

Woman drives by a murder in progress to which she's oblivious. Murderer pursues her.

Great acting but horrible script -- unless you LIKE movies where the heroine is supposedly going back to law school but is really, really stupid. (And the police are nothing like CSI or SVU or any other such show.) The "heroine" has long hair that flips in front of her eyes a lot and she also has a penchant for ensuring she can't hear either -- too plugged into her music. You first see her driving through a parking lot spending more time looking at her player than where she's driving, and my first impression was a wish she'd hit one of those parking lot pillars to learn to watch where she's going. She drives past a murder in progress - the killer pulls a plastic bag over the head of a 70-ish man, hits him repeatedly on the head, and puts him in his own trunk. Ms. Oblivious drives by and the killer follows her in the victim's car and rear-ends her. But a nearby police car prevents him from killing her there. She asks for his insurance info, so she clearly hasn't realized he's a murderer, but he's as stupid as she is and sets off to eliminate the "accidental witness." But before he goes after her, he sets his first victim's car on fire and crashes it. Any competent medical examiner should find that the victim had a stove-in skull, but the police don't suspect foul play until well into the movie. Meanwhile, the moronic murderer tries to run over the witness in a white van - she kindly told him her jogging schedule in their two-minute conversation after the fender bender. He kills the wrong girl. She finds the body -- if the killer had stuck around he could have gotten her too because she doesn't know enough to get out when the lights don't work and there's a dead body on the floor. He lures her to a deserted garage where she sees a white van but a homeless man's sudden appearance prevents him from another murder attempt. Earlier, she has confessed to her fiancée, who's refurbishing a loft (saw his nail gun and visions of Lethal Weapon (1, I think) danced in my head) that she was attacked jogging in the park, but when she tells him she's beginning to suspect she's in danger (DUH!), the boyfriend is doubtful. (Clearly they're a perfect match intellectually.) After all this, she still is naive enough to let the guy delivering groceries LET HER FRONT DOOR OPEN while he goes for the rest of the bags. And for all her bragging about jogging every morning, she can't even run faster than the desk-jockey chasing her in the big finale.