The Cradle Will Fall (2004) starring Angie Everhart, John Ralston, Philippe Brenninkmeyer, William B. Davis, Alan C. Peterson, Carol Higgins Clark directed by Rob W. King Movie Review

The Cradle Will Fall (2004)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Angie Everhart in The Cradle Will Fall (2004)

The Hand That Robbed the Cradle

"The Cradle Will Fall" is another one of those movies which often is seen prefixed by the words "Mary Higgins Clark's" and as such it is fair to say this is a movie full of the typical, especially characters from a strong female attorney to a cliche movie bad guy with a distinctive accent. But whilst "The Cradle Will Fall" is full of other cliche issues you would associate with movies that are made for TV it is still surprisingly entertaining. In fact whilst there is certainly a far fetched element as we have a storyline about embryonic implantation the mystery crime story is pretty engrossing.

Following a road accident attorney Katie DeMaio (Angie Everhart - The Hollywood Mom's Mystery) ends up in the Westlake fertility clinic where she comes to the attention of Dr. Highley (Philippe Brenninkmeyer) who discovers she has inherited a condition which causes haemorrhaging. After leaving the clinic having promised to consider the surgery she needs Katie finds herself back there but in a professional capacity when a woman who had fertility treatment and was 7 months pregnant is found murdered. Whilst initially the main suspect is the dead woman's cheating husband evidence starts to point to the Westlake clinic especially when evidence that one of the doctors had been previously fired from another clinic for malpractice.

Philippe Brenninkmeyer in The Cradle Will Fall (2004)

There are two sides to "The Cradle Will Fall" and the first side is that stylistically it is a typical TV movie within the crime, mystery genre. We have typical characters such as Katie being a strong female character, Richard the handsome Forensic Pathologist who has feelings for her and of course a bad guy which whilst I won't say who it is obvious when you take into account how many movie bad guys come from a certain country and have a specific accent. The typical also extends to the visual style because whilst for a TV movie it is well paced there is nothing visually original going on with the same sort of static camera work you can find in all manner of TV movies. And on a slight negative some of the acting, especially those in supporting roles is poor and over the top.

But whilst there is this typical side there is the other to "The Cradle Will Fall" and that is the simple fact it is engrossing. They maybe cliche but the group of good guys, Katie, Richard, Det. Charley and Dist. Atty. Alex work well together to make the scenes they share engaging. And whilst you pretty much guess who the bad guy will be from the minute you meet him there are a nice series of twists to occasionally make you wonder whether you are wrong. So whilst it never really delivers anything breathe taking or new it works what it has to keep you watching.

Having said that "The Cradle Will Fall" does have one major issue and that is the question of why people are being murdered. Now without giving too much away we have a movie which suddenly drops embryonic implantation on us and unfortunately in the context of the movie it sounds so far fetched. Maybe there is some truth to what the movie says, I have no medical knowledge so can't say, but how out of the blue this arrives as part of the story just feels seriously wrong.

What this all boils down to is that "The Cradle Will Fall" is for the most just your typical made for TV crime thriller full of the regular cliches. But it is a watchable one which despite being obvious to who the bad guy is manages to pace things nicely to keep you interested.


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