Death Benefit (1996)

HORTON'S LAW

Peter Horton is most remembered for his role on the tv series THIRTY SOMETHING. His sincere and layered performance ignites this dark thriller. Based on a true story, Horton plays a corporate lawyer who is approached by a distressed woman who has just lost her daughter in an "accident." Horton offers to write a letter to the insurance company which is not paying the mother. This leads him into the mystery surrounding the girl's death, and once probing Horton begins to think that the girl was murdered for an insurance policy naming a married couple with whom she was staying. Turns out this couple might have done this before. Enter the late gifted actress Carrie Snodgress as Virginia McGinnis, affectionately known as "Ice Lady". The history of McGinnis' lurid past catches up with her and Horton becomes obsessed with the case, risking not only his career, but his personal life as well.
There's not a lot of action, but in a film like this, it's not important. Horton's fierce determination to bring McGinnis to justice paints a portrait of a good man who wants to live up to the oath he took as a lawyer.
Recommended. September 29, 2004

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