Lucky Day (2002)
Nora Barkin is an aspiring actress who supports herself by working for a courier service. No sooner has Nora's friend and coworker Bill Reagan jubilantly announced that he possesses a lottery ticket worth 13 million dollars than Bill is killed by an unknown assailant. Though discouraged from doing so by investigating detective Marinello, Nora insists upon trying to solve Bill's murder herself.
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Reviews
Such a frustrating disappointment
Powerful
A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.
After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.
I have read some of Mary Higgins Clark's books and at best they are mediocre to start with. It would be unimaginable to mention her name in the same breath as the likes of classic mystery authors such as Christie or Le Carre. Having said that, this film really takes the biscuit. It is filmed like an Australian/American soap opera with the 'actors' responding to anything that happens or is said to them with a gasp, a sigh and a long look into the distance before delivering a dry and unbelievable reply. The 'star' is the same actress that rose to a short lived part in the UK soap opera Emmerdale...and she was actually more believable in that. I warn you... if you have some paint to watch dry... do that. My girlfriend described it as 'Days of our lives', with less talent than the cast of Friends.
I'm not the kind of person who watches TV a lot, but I did incidentally caught this film two times on TV. The second time I saw it about two years have passed since my first viewing, but interestingly enough I recognized the film and even remembered the story and characters, which means the whole thing had something memorable.I wouldn't like to give anything away not even the first minute of it, but basically if you catch this on TV, what you need to expect from this is a good murder mystery story, with a female protagonist, good characters, filled with occasional suspense. Don't expect originality though, and complicated puzzles, it's more of a typical murder mystery, but a good one.If you want to release stress after a long and hard day at work, and this is on TV, then it's on for you.
I'm a fan of Mary Higgins Clark. She is a fantastic mystery novelist and I have all her books. I was expecting a great movie but was deceived. With such an excellent plot the director had all the elements to create a marvelous piece of art but the direction was pretty poor. Even the acting was just okay. Amanda Donahue is a first class actress but she seems to be out of place. The conversation held by the characters didn't sound true to me. I recommend Pretend you don't see her,another Mary Higgins Clark novel, which is of a better quality. The fact that this is made for television is not an excuse for not having made a good movie. Many of my favorite movies have been made for television and they are flawless. Example: Raid on Entebbe, which by the way, I want to buy and has not been made for sale.
This is a pretty good tv-movie. It had a good plot with some un-expecting twists. The acting is decent only the directing is a bit lame and the story had a bit more potential. But for a tv movie it's good, so watch it when it comes by on television.