Past Tense (2006 TV Movie) User Reviews

Worth Watching

[Pat100 · 6/10 · 11 March 2008]

A supernatural who-dun-it.

I enjoyed the film and felt that the acting and characters were good.

The story had me guessing as to the outcome. It is a good, basic thriller with no great plot holes.

Some of the red herrings are a bit contrived.

Overall it's worth watching. I liked the way the the hunt was conducted using a combination of mobile phones and clairvoyance.

There are a couple of gruesome bits - not too bad.

If you can accept that using clairvoyance to solve a mystery is not cheating then it's a simple enjoyable film.

Back to the future

[sol-kay · 6/10 · 23 March 2011]

***SPOILERS*** Writer Alex Campbell and director Penelope Buitenitus have come up with a real dosey of a movie in "Past Tense" about a murder that was committed 10 years ago that was supposed to have been solve but really put under wraps by the very person who committed it! It wasn't until the murdered person detective Chris Shay's 10 years old daughter Sara started getting flashback in how both her dad and his supposed murderer were killed that things really started cooking in the film.

Sara who was born after her father's death somehow got in contact with this murdered young woman Penny Romig's spirit from beyond the grave in her actually being Penny's reincarnated other self Sara Shay! All this drives Sara's single mom Kim off her rocker thinking that her daughter is in need of immediate psychiatric help! That help is soon to come in that Kim's husbands former partner in the police department Det. Matt Carson smalls a rat in all this reincarnation talk on both her and Sara's part that he feel the case of his partner's murder should be reopened with Chris' killer Mark Davies having been framed in his murder to cover up who really did him in. As for the long dead Penny Romig she's the string that ties all this together in that it was her murder that Davies was supposedly responsible for having committed!

The reincarnation angle in the movie starts to run out of steam as Sara's revelations about her former self's, Penny Romig, take a back seat to the person who had actually murdered her! He with the help of a number of people high in the police department had covered up the reasons for Penny's murder to hide the truth about the condition that she was in at the time of her death. This lead Kim together with Sara's help to track down a number of leads together with Det.Carson that if revealed can turn the entire police department as well as it pathology unit upside down and behind bars.

***SPOILERS*** As Kim & Det. Carson, with Sara's help, get closer to both Chris Shay and Penny Romig's murderer he starts to make a number of mindless mistakes in jumping the gun in him trying to put Kim & Det. Carson out of the picture and out of their lives. Using a very ineffective and amateurish hit-man, that he picked up at a local ginmill, to do the heavy lifting for him ends up with the hit-man hitting himself,with a knife in the chest, as he tried to murder Kim in a wild chase scene in the county morgue no less. As for the person whom the killer had been blackmailing to keep the truth of his crimes hidden he had a sudden change of heart when he realized what a bind he got himself into, with no way out for him but a long stretch in the state prison, finally did the right thing by blowing his brains out before the cops could put the cuffs on him.

The killer now with his crimes fully exposed could only try to get revenge by offing Kim who had foiled his 10 year plan of keeping the truth of his crimes from coming to the surface! Like his bumbling hit-man he too was to fail miserably in carrying out his plan by,in him being so eager to do Kim in, not covering his back when he final curtain suddenly came down on him!

P.S It was non-other but a local homeless man who was really the hero in the movie by making himself look and act crazy, which wasn't that hard for him to do, that gave Det. Carson all the time he needed to escape from the police record department with the vital information, on the circumstances of Penny Romig's murder, that broke the entire case wide open.

Possession and the Law

[wes-connors · 4/10 · 10 July 2014]

Tightly-attired widow Paula Trickey (as Kim) jumps out of her bed to comfort screaming 10-year-old daughter Alexia Fast (as Sara). The mature-looking girl has been having nightmarish flashbacks to an incident which killed her police officer father Christopher "Chris" Shay, and a mysterious woman, in the line of duty. Incredibly, young Fast seems to be assuming the identity of the woman murdered alongside detective Shay. Of course, this raises Ms. Trickey's eyebrows. She tries to investigate new facts being revealed by her daughter, but the police are uncooperative and Adrian Hough (as Robert Marquette) can't get the case re-opened. Only detective Michael Rogers (as Matt Carson), who loved Officer Shay like a brother, seems helpful. His more natural characterization also helps this supernatural crime drama. But, while we do discover what happened, the supernatural angle is never quite clear or believable.

**** Past Tense (8/12/06) Penelope Buitenhuis ~ Paula Trickey, Alexia Fast, Michael Rogers, Adrian Hough

Past Tense

[a_baron · 1/10 · 18 November 2016]

What an absolute load of rubbish. How could anyone sit through this without multitasking: Bridey Murphy meets a youthful Miss Marple? Seriously, do ten year old girls really have visions of murdered women they've never met? The only thing arguably worse than the ludicrous plot is the script.

It's one thing to pander to psychic nonsense, it's another entirely to insult the intelligence of even an American audience with this sort of trash. Paula Trickey is not a bad actress but Meryl Streep and Marlon Brando could not breathe life into this monstrosity. Seriously. This is a TV film made on a limited budget, but even with five times the budget it is doubtful if it could have been made mildly more interesting than the test card.

Seriously, give this one a miss.

The case of the surprised mother and her very unreal daughter - Boo!!!

[feeco · 1/10 · 1 October 2009]

Oh, my God! This is so bad! I just can't keep on watching it. Paula Trickey (as the desperate mother) has been looking out of her head astonished exactly the same way for half an hour already, without even moving a single face muscle in a different way.. Besides, it is obvious that the kid in the little girl's role (Alexia Fast) has never ever been seriously frightened in her life so far.. Above all, the benignant black therapist appears.. I can't believe that movies like this are still made. I can't believe that there are still so many austere viewers around the world who last out such producers and filmmakers. Boo! - I'll switch this thing off, immediately!!!

Watch Past Tense cause its a GREAT movie

[crazywildmusic · 8/10 · 23 August 2006]

Past Tense is a great movie but it's kinda weird and scary. The movie is about a girl name Sara Shay and she has these nightmares about a lady name Penny Romig when shes getting killed. As she has the nightmares she gets cuts somehow. So her mom tries to figure out who killed Penny so Sara stops having those nightmares and thinks she Penny. But little did Sara know for a couple days her dad was murdered the same day for doing his job. Her dad was a detective and he was trying to get the story about Penny and then he got shot by a gun. So who killed Penny? Who killed Sara's dad? Who was the murderer? Well you have to see the movie to figure out.

An amazing thriller!

[FastFan · 8/10 · 14 July 2010]

I had watched this movie back a few months ago, about a desperate mother trying to solve a mystery that her daughter draws in her visions. The girl, Sara Shay (Alexia Fast) has some troubles at her school, due to been given these horrific nightmares about a woman who was allegedly murdered. There are sufficient amount of clues towards the one woman's murder. The mother, Kim Shay (Paula Trickey) is quite the protective mother, wanting to solve this case, on the behalf of her daughter, who suddenly gets her nightmares stopped. But according to some research, the father/husband was supposedly killed by the same man who killed the other woman. She would go to the precipice of protecting her daughter, as she is later kidnapped, and held a hostage, till the mother arrives to save her daughter.

Honestly, I was very impressed with this movie. I'm into those thriller, suspense movies about a mother going to extreme lengths to protect her daughter. This movie was well done, and the characters all blended well with each other. If you're into these kinds of movies, "Past Tense" is the one for you. I rated this 8 stars because some scenes were a bit confusing, but overall, brilliant movie.

Rated on a LMN scale!

[TVblabber · 9/10 · 12 June 2018]

I was really surprised by this TV movie. A child has been having nightmares and drawing the same woman since she was 5. She wakes up at the same time every time she has an all too realistic "night terror." As with many cases both in movies and reality her Mom is quick to dismiss her nightmares despite graphic details that are similar to a case she's intimately connected to. We eventually learn the child is a medium who channels a woman who was murdered 10 years prior. She is able to see what the victim sees (through the eyes of the victim). It's presented in a way that once the mystery is solved her gift is "dissolved" like it was a sort of one time deal but in reality, that would not be the case). A perk is they don't just throw it out there as the moment of her death, they actually make her "human" a character we get to know even though we rarely see. It was a nice touch to add to it. Long story short, her visions eventually lead down a very suspenseful path of cover-ups, corruption and murder. It's biggest downfall is the acting. The Mother played by Paula Trickey was a couple steps up from Ronne Blakely (Remember Nancy's mother in A Nightmare on Elm Street? Yep, that's the one!). The supporting actors were also unimpressive.Alexia Fast, however (the little girl) was EXTREMELY impressive! Very believable and not a moment out of character or over-acting. As stated in the headline to this review it's graded on a Lifetime TV movie scale, not a motion picture scale. It was one of the offerings in the Lifetime Movie Club (free trial). I think I enjoyed this more because I didn't go into it with great expectations. Like with any Lifetime movie I expect it to be similar to a dozen others and redundant to the point of humor. Maybe that's what makes these addictive and entertaining. The often poor acting, bad lines (this movie being an exception), and the "Run! Don't chase the man or hide in the closet upstairs" type of moments. The only similar movie I can compare this to was actually another decent one staring Beverley Mitchell. Titled: I Know what I Saw or originally titled Post Mortem. Bottom line, if you have some time to kill and want something with some suspense and a decent story, give it a shot. Don't expect an award winner on a TV unknown cast budget. I might not be selling it well with the don't go into it with big expectations and you're really like it but it's sort of the case. If you're an avid Lifetime channel viewer DEFINITELY give it a watch. You'll be sure to enjoy it ;) PS Upon some research I found that the talented little girl is actually actress Alexia Fast who has appeared in Jack Reacher, Triple Dog, Midnight Sun, the Secret Circle,Supernatural, Bates Motel,Manhattan, Kaya, and more. I thought she looked familiar, but she was so young. She's now 26 and currently working on new projects!