Another True Story
When Tina Thomas (Amber Clayton) brought home boyfriend Gabe (Billy Miller) to meet her parents, Tommy Thomas (Harvey Keitel - Wrong Turn at Tahoe) was not overly impressed with the young man. Despite this Tina and Gabe ended up getting married and heading off to Australia's Great Barrier Reef for a perfect honeymoon scuba diving. But less than two weeks after their marriage Tina apparently drowns in a freak diving accident. Except not only are the police suspicious as Gabe's statements lack consistency too many things don't add up with the actual evidence. With Tommy unable to settle he leaves Alabama and heads to Australia to work with the police in trying to get to the bottom of things as he also feels Gabe is guilty.
"Fatal Honeymoon" is not Harvey Keitel's first TV Movie, if you look through his filmography you will see every now and then he has appeared in one of these movies. And unsurprisingly just by his name appearing in the credits seems to change people's opinions with some people who dismiss TV movies as rubbish suddenly finding something good to say about "Fatal Honeymoon" because it features Keitel. The thing is that whilst Keitel gives the level of performance you expect, bringing out the emotion of a man who is cut up over his daughter's death, the rest of "Fatal Honeymoon" is flawed.
Yes you did read that right "Fatal Honeymoon" is flawed and it is hard to say due to this being based on a true story. The biggest problem with "Fatal Honeymoon" is the forced time jumping as the use of flashbacks is too much. It seems that we get a minute long scene in the present with Tommy in Australia, meeting people involved with the case and being shown evidence and then suddenly jumping back to the past. The whole point of this is to establish that right from the start Tommy was unsure of Gabe, taking a dislike to his manner and level of arrogance. But it is too much and it almost becomes repetitive as whilst these flashbacks tell how Tina and Gabe had a troubled relationship before they married it feels like it is hammering it home with a whole host of sledgehammers.
Now in fairness "Fatal Honeymoon" is more than just a lot of flashbacks because the story develops with the case having been left open leads to Australian authorities wanting to extradite Gabe back to face trial when they decide there is enough proof to charge Gabe with murder. But this then makes "Fatal Honeymoon" more of a movie for those who were involved in the case or followed it as it doesn't tell the story but becomes a series of events in the case from Tommy appearing on TV to footage of flowers on the grave being forcefully removed by Gabe.
What this all boils down to is that "Fatal Honeymoon" is an interesting movie based on a true story and one which benefits from the gravitas of having Harvey Keitel in the cast. But it is flawed with a disjointed narrative which over complicates things and a style which makes it work more for those who already know the story.
