Watched 02/08/2025
Format: Hallmark
Format: Hallmark
Viewing: First
Director: Don McCutcheon
new skill: Escaping from enclosed spaces
Man: Brennan Elliot
Job of Man: Detective
Goes to/ Returns to: Remains in NYC
Event: None, really
Food: you know, I don't think they stop to eat in this movie
If I was concerned this was going to be a series of movies about crimes being hidden in crossword puzzles, I needn't have worried. Instead, the crossword tie-in here is that the victim is a friend of Chabert who (prior to checking out involuntarily) asks Lacey to hide his marriage proposal in the Sunday puzzle. A few days later (that very Sunday!), he manages to gets murdered.
Rather than a crossword housing the mystery, there's a whole thing about cryptography, WWII codes and a hidden treasure. It's not bad. The idea here is that Chabert's character is naturally adept at solving puzzles and codes, as well as driven to do so, exploiting her interns along the way - in pursuit of justice!
Detective Man is assigned to the case, and immediately he and Chabert cross paths. Flirty paths, with meaningful glances.
Our victim, Chabert's platonic college pal, had just received tenure at College University, and was getting engaged to a woman he met a year ago. She's a chef with access to pointy knives. In addition to the fiancé, other possible suspects pop up, like a librarian, a faculty member, an antiquarian and an ex who is a surgeon.
I liked the code breaking stuff. That felt clever. And the supporting cast was not bad, especially Lara Jean Chorostecki who I'd seen before on The Expanse and a few other places.
Is it stupid? No. If you're going for serialized murder-solving - identifying the motive, the method and therefore the whodunit - this is that. And it's *not bad*. Is it groundbreaking? No. Is it supposed to be? Absolutely not. This is Hallmark doing its best to make something that feels like a TV movie.
Yes, the movie requires Chabert forgets things like "cellphones exist", the screenwriters are mad at the idea that people lock their computers and therefore they refuse to make that a problem for our sleuthing puzzle-meister, and there's a scene where you know that glass should be double-paned, but whatever. But they do some smart things, like the sourcing of the ring which both initially drives the investigation into the victim's finances and later serves to point to something else.
What this flick does offer up is a decently put together murder mystery and a slow boil romance between Chabert and Detective Man. We've done two whole movies and they end it by attending a wedding together. So I guess by the end of the fifth movie they'll share a single dry kiss under a gazebo.
I don't really have much to say here. It's a peanut butter and jelly sandwich of a movie. Maybe not a 7-course dinner of a movie full of surprises and a singular journey, but it works in a pinch, and delivers what you're looking for in the moment. Maybe with some Pringles on the side.
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