Customer Reviews

First Degree

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Made for cable, "First Degree" has more twists than a bag of pretzels, and is in many ways over-plotted, but for TV fare, it's entertaining, and has some interesting characters in the story. Detective Rick Mallory (Rob Lowe) is called in to investigate the murder of a rich businessman, and almost immediately falls for the beautiful widow Hadley (Leslie Hope). Before you can say "whodunit," they are madly in lust. The question that needs answering is who committed the murder? Did Hadley hire a hit man? Was it Joe the gangster? Suspicions abound, and sometimes the plot gets a little muddled, but the cast is attractive, and the lovely soundtrack by Bruce Fowler adds to the enjoyment of the film.

Det. Mallory's precinct buddies (Tom McCamus and Joseph Griffin) are clever and amusing, and most endearing is Jacob the writer (Peter Boretski), who is the only one Mallory can't fool. There's a lot of drinking, smoking, and one grisly murder scene, so this police thriller is not suitable for young children. Directed by Jeff Woolnough, written by Ron Base, and with cinematography by Glen MacPhearson, "First Degree" is sleek looking, never boring, and remembering that "it's just a TV movie" helps. Total running time is 98 minutes.

I have seen Rob Lowe's movies before, and this one only confirms my opinion of him as a vain, self-centered "pretty boy" who preens his way through the movie FIRST DEGREE. He portrays Detective Rick Mallory, a NYPD homicide detective who is called to investigate the shooting death of a society philanthropist (and banker) Andrew Pyne, then subsequently meets, interrogates and (of course) falls in love with his widow, Hadley Pyne, played by Leslie Hope. The plot is wildly illogical, with more twists and turns that are very confusing to the viewer--what is the point of some of them? Furthermore, the quality of the DVD was poor and I had trouble understanding some of the dialogue, and I do NOT have a hearing problem!! Leslie Hope portrays Hadley Pyne, and her acting is not much better than Lowe's; she has flat affect and no real feeling injected into her lines. The love scenes are not very believable, and as another viewer pointed out, there's no real chemistry between Lowe and Hope; both seem too self-absorbed to be interested in anything but themselves. Tom McCamus was wonderful--in my opinion, he should have had the title role, having much more depth and feeling--than Lowe. McCamus portrays Amos Turzo, who becomes suspicious of his partner's motives fairly early on in the movie, but does a good job of keeping them to himself till the end. If anything, this movie is a good ethics lesson: be careful what you wish for, you just might get it and where do you go from there?

In this suspenseful detective drama, a police detective's personal involvement with a beautiful widow takes a professional turn when she is accused of murdering her husband. The gumshoe feels it is his job to prove her innocent.