The Sound of Melodramatic Music
Some time after the death of her husband, when he shielded her from a stray bullet, Elizabeth 'Liz' Guinness (Patsy Kensit - Lethal Weapon 2) goes to work for Richard Keaton (Simon MacCorkindale - No Greater Love), a wealthy widower, who requires a nanny for his science devoted son, Andrew (Keegan MacIntosh), who has already seen of three nannies. Richard doesn't have much to do with Andrew and refuses to discuss his late mother, who reportedly committed suicide but there is suspicion that it was murder. Despite Andrew being more interested in learning and being distant Liz refuses to be put off, even if Andrew insists the ghost of his mother roams the large house, and slowly she makes a break through with the precocious child. Things take a turn for the dangerous when Richard's brother, Blain (Lindsay Merrithew), shows up who is determined to go against his brother's wishes and sell the family home.
"At the Midnight Hour" starts with a big moment of drama as we watch Liz's husband killed as he shields her from a bullet, it is of course over the top but you expect nothing less from a Harlequin/ Mills & Boon movie. And to be honest because of what this movie is there is a big slice of this made for TV movie which is predictable as we have Patsy Kensit playing a nanny who goes to work for a stand-offish widower who lives in a mansion and has a precocious son. So of course not only will she end up bonding with the boy but also finds herself falling for the handsome widow who ends up stopping being so stand-offish to everyone. You can pretty much fill in the gaps when it comes to his motive for not wanting to be a part of his son's life and so on.
But alongside this extremely predictable side to "At the Midnight Hour" we also have the mystery surrounding the death of Richard's wife with some suspecting he murdered her. As such as this movie plays out we get painted a partial picture of who Richard's wife was as we learn that she wasn't always faithful and was a bit of a money grabber. On top of that we also have the tension between Richard and his brother, Blain, which you can guess has some sort of connection to Richard's late wife. And of course there has to be some danger in there to bring some drama to proceedings when you get to the final 30 minutes or so. The thing is that whilst all this works for the targetted audience it doesn't bring anything close to new to the mix
What this all boils down to is that "At the Midnight Hour" delivers everything you would expect from a movie which comes under the heading of Harlequin/ Mills & Boon. And as such this is one of those movies which you will either love because you love romantic melodramas or find cheesy due to all those romantic melodrama touches such as the orchestral swells when a passionate kiss arrives.
