The Good Times Are Killing Me (2009) Kelly Rowan, Rupert Graves, Vincent Walsh, Rosemary Dunsmore, Duncan Regehr, Serge Houde Movie Review

The Good Times Are Killing Me (2009)   2/52/52/52/52/5


Kelly Rowan and Rupert Graves in The Good Times Are Killing Me (2009)

Got a Case of Something

Kate Derby (Kelly Rowan - The Ultimate Sin) is a good lawyer although she never seems to be able to live up to her parents, especially her father's, high standards. It makes things difficult because she is in charge of a case against Senator Sam Talbot (Duncan Regehr - Nightmare at the End of the Hall) who happens to be a close friend of her parents. But after a series on incidents which have seen her collapse in court Kate boards a plane for Britain to gather evidence. But having drifted off during the flight she comes around to find herself having been committed to a British rehab facility for alcoholics, where she is not allowed to leave for four months and her contact with the outside world is supervised. With none of the staff believing her when she says someone is trying to silence her, Kate ends up having to rely on the help of a couple of patients, especially Lexy (Rupert Graves - The Madness of King George), to try and prove that Talbot is using his power to get her out of the picture.

For a brief minute I found myself wondering whether they filmed "The Good Times Are Killing Me" both in American and in England as that is where the main locations are. Then of course I reminded myself this was a made for TV movie which was shot in Canada and the only real footage of Britain consisted of a few roads and road signs. And that is about as exciting as it gets as beyond that the storyline is pretty basic, woman who has incriminating evidence is locked away in a facility where no one other than the patients believe her. Although when towards the end of the movie we discover the true despicable nature of Senator Talbot, there is a scene which is surprising.

As such pretty much everything about "The Good Times Are Killing Me" is a gentle progression through to a mostly unsurprising conclusion when it comes to Kate getting justice. Yes it tries to be clever when it comes to her alcoholism as well as her growing closeness to Lexy but none of it is out of the ordinary. And sadly none of the characters are that memorable with Rupert Graves seeming to go above board to try and make Lexy a quirky character.

What this all boils down to is that "The Good Times Are Killing Me" ends up a rather dull made for TV thriller which maybe in the whole movie has only two scenes which really grab your attention. For the rest of the movie it feels like a procession though a familiar story idea.


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