Before I Say Goodbye (2003) starring Sean Young, Peter DeLuise, Ursula Karven, Winston Rekert, Christopher Shyer, Lloyd Bochner, Desiree Zurowski, Claudette Mink directed by Michael Storey Movie Review

Before I Say Goodbye (2003)   2/52/52/52/52/5


Sean Young in Before I Say Goodbye (2003)

Before You Watch

After deciding to return to politics Nell MacDermott (Sean Young - Everything to Gain) ends up having a row with her husband Adam (Christopher Shyer) who disagrees with her, leaving in a huff for a business meeting on his boat. Shortly after Nell gets a strange feeling which comes true when Detective Brennan (Peter DeLuise) shows up as her husband's boat has blown up with him and some other people aboard. But with Adam having some shady contacts things do not appear to be as simple as an accident especially when bribe money is found and a psychic who says that Adam has been in touch with her gets in contact with Nell leading her to try and solve the murder.

I should mention that "Before I Say Goodbye" is part of the Mary Higgins Clark Collection but in truth that makes no difference to how I feel about this made for TV movie as I simply didn't like it. From the storyline, to the acting and the direction it just failed to float my boat, pun intended, and it almost has the feel of a movie made by people who were doing their own thing.

Peter DeLuise in Before I Say Goodbye (2003)

So unfortunately this review is going to be mainly me pointing out what is wrong with "Before I Say Goodbye" because there is nothing which stood out as being right. The first thing is that for a thriller it is completely devoid of atmosphere and that not only makes it hard work but also hard to get into. It has all the pieces; the murders, the shady characters, the whole psychic element as well as detectives but it is devoid of atmosphere. There is absolutely no suspense and when coupled with ordinary camera work it makes it one of those movies which is playing out in front of your eyes but you take none of it in.

Then there is the acting and whilst the likes of Winston Rekert as the dodgy Peter Lang delivers the sort of slightly over the top performance you expect Sean Young as Nell does her own thing. As Nell Young plays her as very aloof, almost in her own little world which makes it incredibly hard to connect to her and as the central character that is incredibly wrong. It honestly feels like Sean Young read the script, decided she didn't like the way the character was written and so did her thing which if everyone else had done the same might of worked but as the only one who does ends up sticking out like a sore thumb.

What this all boils down to is that "Before I Say Goodbye" just doesn't work as it fails to create atmosphere and suspense whilst also failing to give us characters to connect to. It isn't completely terrible but "Before I Say Goodbye" is seriously dull, failing to involve you at all.


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