Woman Hunted (2003)

Hear Your Heart Go Thumpety Thump

It is said that life is the sum of one's decisions, and Lainie Wheeler made a lot of bad ones. After a failed marriage, she started using drugs, and her 2 children were placed in foster care. After work one rainy night, she takes a wrong turn while looking for a short-cut, and makes the worst choice of her life. The film starts as the police chase her car down to arrest her, and then retraces the previous 3 months that led to that moment. "A Woman Hunted" has some heart-stopping moments, and is well written and directed by Morrie Ruvinsky, with a taut script, good pacing, a great deal of plausibility, and a marvelous, unexpected resolution. Perhaps this could be labeled a "woman's movie," but it is easy to empathize with Lainie, and understand her plight.

Alexandra Paul gives a stupendous performance as Lainie, a woman who kills the man who rapes her. With a police record behind her, and fresh out of rehab, she does not think anyone will believe her story, and in her torment states "I just thought I could make everything un-happen." Others in the cast that are standouts are the 2 detectives, Linden Ashby (Det. Webster) and Dean Hagopian (Det. Fulton), and Jonathan Higgins as Harry Brewer, the baseball star with a predatory dark side. This is excellent made-for-TV entertainment, above average in quality, and for making the most of its low budget production, deserves 5 stars. I would rather see a small unpretentious film that tries hard and succeeds, than some of the multi-million $ rubbish that has been theatrically released in recent years. Total running time is 94 minutes.
August 21, 2005

Queen Alexandra

This is an excellent thriller, it holds your interest from start to finish and that's pretty rare in TV movies these days. It's in a whole different league than most other (predictable) Pierre David-produced thrillers, in fact, it's better than most recent theatrical thrillers. Several edge-of-your-seat scenes. It stars Alexandra Paul in what I consider to be her best performance to date, an accomplished actress who has clearly come into her own. Best known for that awful nonsense known as "Baywatch", Miss Paul actually is a very good actress indeed and it only takes one look at this movie to see that. And I like that in real life she's a vegetarian, as I am. (She may be a Kerry supporter, but I won't hold that against her.)-;) I've always enjoyed her movies, and you wouldn't think this is the same actress who appeared in so-so thrillers like "Piranhas" or "Fallen Angel" - but it is, that's how different and good she is here. The surprise ending for once really was a surprise and had me go "what ?", I never saw it coming. Do yourself a favor, check this one out. By the way, it's out in widescreen on R2 whereas this R1 release is full frame. October 22, 2004

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