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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful brooding mystery, March 6, 2000
This review is from: Evidence of Blood [VHS] (VHS Tape)
I loved this movie. Though the pace is a bit slower than your run-of-the-mill murder mystery, that pace allowed for some very realistic character development. The viewer is drawn into the story--I hated to stop the tape to put my son to bed. The brooding quality never got so dark and heavy that it was simply painful to watch. Instead, it just kept you going, waiting for the next turn. I rented the movie because I saw David Strathairn and Mary McDonnell on the cover, not because I knew anything about the movie. It was a true gem. The viewer starts to figure out the plot just as the main character figures things out. The acting is so good, you can see each discovery move across his face just as you learn about it. The mood is created with absolute conviction. Everyone involved did a superb job. If you're up for a GOOD (not mediocre) mystery, check out this video.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
More than a Gothic thriller, October 8, 2002
This review is from: Evidence of Blood [VHS] (VHS Tape)
Murder stories with a Southern setting have a dark and eerie sense all their own and EVIDENCE OF BLOOD is no exception. This finely wrought film boasts a good story line with enough ongoing kinks resulting in new insights to keep you glued to the screen. David Strathairn as a writer of mysteries returns to his hometown, meets his newly departed best friend's girl (Mary McDonnell, and begins to unravel an old murder that happened in his childhood. The mysteries surrounding this rather unlikely and bizarre trial and execution of McDonnell's father leave some of the townsfolk silently confused, but it is clear that the truth behind the grisly deed is better left unknown if the smalltown mentality is to be unrumpled. But this story is about much more than a retrospective surveillance of a foggy murder. It is more about the mysteries of early childhood that are buried with every loss of a relative who could bear witness. There is a dark part to each of us, whether self created or victimized. Seeking to discover our true identity can be a very frightening journey. Strathairn and McDonnell give sensitive performances as does the large cast of supporting characters. One jolt here: though everyone speaks with either an Appalachian or Southern accent, we never know the location of this odd town - just that it is somewhere north of Alabama! And the fact that the film was shot in Toronto doesn't give a clue. A good mystery for an evening of escape behind safely locked doors of your home.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
When skeletons come out of the closet, December 1, 1999
This review is from: Evidence of Blood [VHS] (VHS Tape)
Here is an incredible tale of the past haunting the present. An author who specializes in the first person accounts of murderers returns to his home town to attend the funeral of his best friend. His friend had been the local sheriff and had been in the midst of an investigation of a thirty-year old case when he suffered a heart attack. The author, played by David Strathairn, decides to continue the investigation on his own. The case involved the murder of a young girl by a local WWII veteran; said veteran having been tried and executed. The veteran's daughter, portrayed so believably by Mary McDonnell, insists that her father was not guilty of the crime. During his investigation a love affair develops between the two. Although, no one attempts to forcefully disuade the author, he nonetheless encounters the resistance to revealing the past that is prevelant in a small southern town. He persevers and unravels a twisted and awful truth that includes his own family and his own sense of who he is. The film presents all the facts, not in order but in the end all becomes crystal clear. Great surprise ending.
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