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| you'd think the prop would indicate this movie is more fun than it is |
Watched 02/10/2025
Format: Hallmark
Format: Hallmark
Viewing: First
Director: Jonathan Wright
new skill: close-up magic
Man: Brennan Elliot
Job of Man: Detective
Goes to/ Returns to: Remains in NYC
Event: Birthday at Magic Manor
Food: I don't think there was any food
In a move that makes total sense from a cost-savings perspective, Lacey Chabert and Brennan Elliot (as Detective Man) return for a third installment in the Crossword Mysteries series - a series which was clearly shot all in one big sprint for these three installments. Chabert has the same hair, and, occasionally, the same jacket. The sets for the police office and the newspaper are the same, and the cast remains intact-ish.
This time, the only tie to a crossword puzzle is that - in order to create a single day's crossword puzzle, Chabert has enrolled in weeks of magic classes at an approximation of LA's Magic Castle. I do not know if New York has one of these.*
It is a crazy reason for Chabert to be on site, but I guess it's weird Jessica Fletcher was always floating around when someone dropped dead 23x a year.
I *like* stage magic. Sure, my one experience with close-up magic, however, made me want to drop-kick a dude into outer space. But, illusions and a murder mystery is right up my alley. However, in this movie we never really get to see any illusions performed during the film that don't involve a camera cut. Alas.
At her 30+?-th birthday celebration at the Magic Manor, Chabert, her aunt (Barbara Niven) and Detective Man are in attendance. The magician tries the 'ol "catch a bullet in his teeth" trick, only to drop dead when the gun is fired - not shot, but (I think) of a heart attack. Forensics decides he was murdered, and Chabert's meddling kicks into full gear.
After establishing supporting characters, this movie seems very disinterested in them. Niven gets minimal screentime. Winston, Detective Man's partner, is in maybe one scene. And a new crime reporter who is clearly meant to be a romantic rival to Detective Man is introduced and then kind of disappears.
The guest cast is pretty okay, especially occasional Hallmark star in her own right, Kaitlyn Leeb, and Canada's workingest actor, Paulino Nunes.
After something like 10 movies together, it is clear Chabert and Elliot are super comfortable on screen together (he was also the guy in All of My Heart BnB movies), and I've seen worse things than the chumminess they have on screen. But it is a little kooky that by the third movie and third case Chabert has basically solved for Detective Man, they still want him to be Scully to her Mulder and dismiss her information and hunches. One case, shame on Dt. Man, two cases - maybe you give someone some credit. Third case, you now have a partner and take what they say seriously, or maybe you have a problem with women.
I'd argue that there are so many moving pieces to how the crime was committed (a) it makes no sense, and (b) it's also super obvious how the magic trick involved works the second it happens, even if we don't know *why* the murder occurs.
But... I am not sure the *why* is that hard to guess when you see a mysterious blonde running around. It's gonna be about gettin' with the blonde.
The absolute maddest part of the movie is a visit to a workshop where a person is making magic tricks for magicians. 1) The lady is supposed to be from Indiana and has an English accent. 2) she appears out of nowhere and declares to someone she does not know (Chabert) "WELCOME! TO THE WORLD OF ILLUSION!" - which is what I'm now asking Jamie to say whenever someone comes over. 3) for reasons that go unexplained, the magician also has underwater video of whales swimming around playing against a 10x10 wall and we're not supposed to comment on it. Yes, this is like 2 minutes of an 84 minute movie, but it is wild.
The story kind of keeps tripping over it's own overly elaborate set-up. For example - they believe the magician was poisoned, likely from poison on the bullet he placed in his mouth. But Chabert's character handles the bullet and no one seems concerned that she might have ingested some poison, too. Look, it's a small thing, but this is the clockwork functionality of a murder mystery. You have to cover the angles. There's a few other things like that, but I won't belabor the point. It just feels like someone needed to ponder some of this a bit harder.
The larger problem is that you kind of know "they just said 'having two objects allows for illusion' two minutes ago in screentime, so I know what really happened" and it kind of gives away the game before the guy is even killed. It's very clunky.
And, in each of these movies, Chabert's character goes through her mental process she uses for coming up with Crossword clues to work backward and solve part of the mystery. And it always sounds like an old, familiar chestnut.
What the movie does do well is, once again, provide plenty of red-herrings and non-clue-clues and possible villains. And, they make sure you can follow Man and Chabert's threads through the film so you get how they keep crossing paths.
BTW, this one does have straight up violence, like guns-pulled and threatening people like our puzzle-meister, right on screen. So I guess sometimes Hallmark goes hard.
I do think all subsequent movies should have made Chabert's character still performing close-up magic with people, and feature everyone becoming increasingly annoyed with her.
My guess is that Chabert's real-life hobby must be ballroom dance, because she works in a tango here, and has a completely different series called "The Dancing Detective" - about a crusty cop who loves to dance, I think.
We'll get there, fam.
*I can say Houston actually had a nightclub/ restaurant based around magic that was apparently very expensive and no one would ever take me to back in high school. It has been closed a for a long time.
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