Fatal Trust (2011)

Best movie of this year hands down!

Simply A Masterpiece

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

I get the play on words with the title. "Fatal Trust" refers to the fact (as Kate points out in the movie) that we routinely and without a second thought place our lives in the hands of complete strangers who we allow to do all sorts of invasive things to us just because they're doctors. It's a point that gets made in the closing captions of the movie, which share a couple of incidents in which doctors were guilty of murdering their patients. So the point is clear - doctors are humans, and just because they're doctors doesn't mean that they can't kill. Point taken. And I thought the climactic confrontation between Kate and Dr. Lucas was reasonably exciting. But overall the movie was something of a disappointment.Kate (Amy Jo Johnson - who I'm not at all familiar with) moves from the big city back to the small town where she grew up after her husband is murdered. She gets a job working as assistant to Dr. Lucas (David Haydn-Jones - also not really familiar with him) and over the course of time (a short period of time) she becomes suspicious because several of his elderly patients (including her own mother before Kate moved back) die suddenly.So it's a kind of murder mystery, and it's honestly nothing special. The acting and writing are both second-rate, and the revelation of how the doctor actually kills his victims actually made me chuckle a little bit because it seemed so silly. It's thankfully fairly short at a little under an hour and a half (it was made for TV and was probably two hours once commercials were inserted) and I'll give it the credit of saying that the story does move along relatively well. Unfortunately, it's just not that good a movie. (3/10)

This film actually surprised me by how good it was. Now I'm not saying it's brilliant, I'm not! Though for a daytime TV movie this is good fare.Kate (Johnson) and her son have suffered the violent loss of a lover and father so she decides it's time to leave the city and head home, where her sister, Jessica (Alt), runs a diner. As she's pulling into town, she passes an accident where a woman has died of a heart attack while driving. As time passes, Kate begins to learn that this isn't the first heart attack in the small town. Could her new boss, Dr Lucas (Haydn-Jones), be behind the deaths in some way(?) So she sets out to find out the truth.Here is the first thing I think could have been better. It would have been a stronger storyline had we not been shown the killer at quite an early stage in the film. Had the writer and director decided to make this into a whodunnit with lots of twists and red herrings this would have been a brilliant movie. It wouldn't have been that difficult to do as the person who's playing the killer is so normal it would have been difficult to guess.The other thing would be her relationship with her son. There's just too little here. At times, you even forget she's a mother. Who know's there may be some of these scene's laying on the cutting room floor. I just think it would have strengthened her character and added a few heartwarming and tearful scenes. This, in turn, could have branched off a story arch where they, as a family, developed more - especially the climax, which was over a little too fast. With an added threat to her son, the director could have ramped up the tension so the audience was on the edge of their seats.Those are my only quirks as the film is well directed and acted throughout. There is one scene which is especially great. After killing an elderly resident, the killer sits back while sipping tea. It's the exhale of their deep breath, the look of calm satisfaction, and the shudder of utter bliss, which gave me the shivers right down to the bone.If you love your thrillers without the mystery element then I'd recommend this film to you. It's an engrossing and entertaining way to waste an hour or two.

After her husband is killed, a woman returns with her young son to her small town birthplace.She becomes a secretary to the local town doctor, a good looking man who apparently has his own agenda consisting of killing his elderly patients.It's never explained why the woman never came home for own mother's funeral.Despite hearing from an elderly man, whose friend died while he was a patient of Dr. Lucas, our heroine doesn't believe this.In the case of stories dealing with serial killings, the bodies begin to pile up and you don't need to have a Ph.D to figure out what is going on.Our doctor, who uses poisonous snake venom to kill his patients, blurts out in the end that life is an incurable disease. You wonder what this nut job is talking about.I wonder what this doctor thought about Medicare.

I caught and taped this telemovie on Lifetime, watched it twice. The second time I understood the plot a lot better. I think the pace of the movie is very fast, so if you're not paying attention to any given scene you will be totally lost.I thought all the actors we're exceptional. The antagonist is quite interesting and well portrayed, Amy Jo Johnson shows some range as she plays Kate quite well. I'm still impressed by her ability to still play teenagers (flashback sequence). She is so very very beautiful in this movie, maybe even more beautiful than 10 years ago! Due to her youthful appearances, its sometimes hard to remember that she is an adult; the film gives us no idea on how old she was supposed to be. Judging by her son who looks about 10, I would presume that she was supposed to be in her late 20s?My one complaint would be for the flashbacks to have been more clear; especially the ones with Kate's former husband, who looks just like her soon to be new boyfriend. It really confused me the first time I watched.Despite a few flaws here and there, highly recommended movie.