Politics & Murder Don't Mix
Joanne Kilbourn (Wendy Crewson), a former detective turned university lecturer, is still haunted by her husband's murder whilst still friends with his former political running mate, Andy Boychuk (Robert Hays). But when during a game of softball everyone witnesses Andy having a row with a mysterious teenage girl things don't bode well as he ends up the chief suspect in Inspector Philip Millard's (Victor Garber) investigations when the teenager is found murdered. Whilst Andy calls on Joanne for her help he also tells her that he had been having an affair with her which when the coroner tells Joanne the victim died a virgin makes her dig even deeper in to what is going on especially when Andy is found murdered in his office.
"Deadly Appearances" is the second movie in the series of made for TV movies featuring Wendy Crewson as the character Joanne Kilbourn and it is the second movie in the series which I have watched although my first was actually the fourth movie "A Colder Kind of Death". The thing is that whilst it appears to be the murder of her husband and Joanne trying to be a mother to their children on her own which provides the storyline to link all these movies together this one certainly works as a stand alone movie and truth be told it has a pretty routine storyline. As such we have a murder a motive and then a second murder which shows the first motive was a lie and as such we have the mystery as to who the teenager was, what was Andy's connection and why would someone murder Andy with the wife becoming a suspect due to her knowing he cheated on her.
Now what is it about American movies when they want to cast bad guys they often seem to look to find an English actor? As such look down the cast list of "Deadly Appearances" and of course the sight of Simon Callow's name in the main cast should trigger alarm bells although look deeper and there are other English actors and actresses to try and muddy the waters a bit. But sadly whilst it is nice to see Simon Callow on screen he looks completely out of place next to the more relaxed acting of Wendy Crewson, Victor Garber and Robert Hays.
What this all boils down to is that "Deadly Appearances" is a pretty typical made for TV murder mystery which might be a little more entertaining for those who watched the first movie in the series not that you need to have watched it to be able to watch this one.
