Too Late to Say Goodbye (2009)

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Really good story with good acting, but the photography of the movie is so bad that it killed my concentration. Angles are so wrong, and imbalanced, shifted point of perspective, most of the time when characters are talking you can see only half of their faces with the rest of the screen completely empty and blurred. Lightning is also very bad under the direct sunlight with harsh shadows. I mean the noon sun is either behind their faces or from the side and you only see half of the face. Very distracting, and also, in almost every scene there must be something blurry in foreground that takes over half of the screen! So annoying! Who ever was behind the camera was either amateur or experimenting. This killed the movie for me, which sadly has such a great story.

Very good example of the "suicide"-disguising-a-homicide genre.Rob Lowe is chillingly convincing as dentist Bart Corbin, who, according to both the movie and news reports, pleaded guilty to killing both his wife Jenn, and, 14 years earlier while in dental school, his estranged girlfriend Dolly Hearn.Both were found dead with single gunshots to the right side of the head, sans notes, yet in each case suicide was the theory first put forth.All of the performances are strong in this far better-than-average Lifetime yarn. In addition to Lowe, there is Stefanie von Pfetten as Jenn, who suspects her husband of having an affair and gets sucked into an internet romance with "Chris," who is really a lesbian posing as a man. Pfetten is believably devastated when the truth becomes clear.Michelle Hurd is also good as the determined Det. Roche, who starts out seeing a cut-and-dried case of suicide but remains open to the possibility of a much more sinister crime scenario. Also turning in strong performances are the boy who plays Jenn's somber 7-year-old son -- he tracks through blood to discover Jenn's body -- and the American Indian/Israeli actress who plays Jenn's lovesick Internet correspondent.I read online that Corbin's attorneys originally argued that "coincidence isn't evidence." Interesting claim! And from what I've read, Corbin technically will become eligible for parole in 2018. However, Georgia officials have said that based on the parole board's track record, he may not actually gain an opportunity for release until 2028.

Anne Rule is a first-rate true-crime writer, both concise and colorful, and she wrote the book this TV movie is based on. It's too bad that the people behind this movie, anxious for a buck, rush to Canada and shoot the story so carelessly for Lifetime Movies.The story itself isn't exactly epic. A narcissistic dentist (Lowe) shoots his wife and sets it up as a suicide. The wife's sister is convinced that it was murder and eggs the local police on. (Nice performance by Michelle Hurd as the determined but straight-laced cop.) A lengthy investigation brings out the fact that one of the dentist's girl friends in college wound up dead in the same manner. Okay, Doc, open wide now.The director, Norma Bailey, tries some original camera angles. Sometimes they work -- a couple of overhead shots that break up the predictable parade of images -- and sometimes they don't. It doesn't add much to a scene of a couple walking down a hallway and having an ordinary conversation when you tilt the camera thirty degrees. There are situations that call for such striking effects, but a chat in a hallways isn't one of them.Rob Lowe is Rob Lowe. Everyone says he's handsome so I suppose he's handsome but there are times when I could be convinced that his character's love of self is entirely real. You know when the audience is first tipped off that there's something queer about the grieving husband? When he shows up to answer questions at the police station, says he's ready to be taken to the interrogation room, and says politely, to nobody in particular, "Coffee black, no cream," and one of the detectives stares after him, stupefied. And he insists on being addressed as "doctor," whereas most non-MDs get that behind them when they're out of their professional settings.When I think of all the pain inflicted on me over the years by those sadists in white coats -- you know the patter, "This may sting a little," and "I'm going to have to be a bad boy now," -- I was glad to see him convicted. You hear me? -- GLAD! I hope that prison has a dentist who is a ham-handed oaf at his job and who suffers from a perpetual hangover. Immanent justice. It was good enough for Aristotle.

I was caught up watching this right away, reading on the screen this was a true story, which immediately takes off with a neighbor opening th front door after a knock one late night, finding the neighboring kid with bare feet covered in blood. The blood is from the mother, which seems to have shot herself. Then the film tells both the continuation of the effect this has on the relatives and friends, as we also neatly are told in retrospect what happened up to the tragic event of finding her shot on the bed.The film is very good hand work, and the acting is excellent, especially from Rob Lowe, playing the dentist husband Bart Corbin is excellent. No wonder his career is back on track. This shows his acting skills. Stephanie von Pfetten, which plays the dead woman which we also get to know retrospectively does great. Her sister is played by Lauren Holley, also doing that role great. We're neatly introduced to the fact of a family not functioning, with the parents blaming each other.The good hand work is showed in the film's pace, the storytelling and even in the narration and music. We also find the story building up suspension about what happened up to her death, where several is involved. The sister believes Bart killed her. And a female detective, played by Michele Hurd, is doing a great investigative job. We follow the investigation in an interesting way, unveiling the story.When I went to rate this on IMDb I was really baffled by the low score. I expected this to have a rating of 6 or 7, but 4,8??? I really think the ratings here tend to be very right, but this is an exception of the rule. I think this might be due to no dramatic ending. Well, this is a drama, not a fictional crime story. Well, it's far better than this rating in all aspects, and is well worth a watch. A good TV- movie about a true story.