Movie Review: Cut, Color, Murder (2022)
Synopsis: Two years after her police officer husband was killed in the line of duty, a former beauty pageant winner, Ali Reed, runs a successful hair salon while secretly helping the police chief solve crimes. When a local pageant organizer is murdered and a new detective considers her sister one of the suspects, Ali decides to conduct her own investigation, putting her life in danger.
Who's in it? The movie stars Julie Gonzalo, Ryan McPartlin, Eva Tamargo, Grace Beedie and Lynda Boyd.
Review: When I saw the preview for this Hallmark movie, I was somewhat intrigued by what looked like a decent murder mystery and added it to my library. Since my wife and I had some extra time yesterday evening, I selected the film. Unfortunately, it wasn't as good as I hoped it would be.
I think my main problem with this movie was the case wasn't nearly as hard to solve as it should have been. My wife guessed at the killer not that long after the murder took place and, frankly, the only reason the movie took so long to prove her right was a very deliberate decision not to seriously investigate that person until the very end (despite being the one person with plenty of motive) and focusing more on obvious red herrings.
The pairing of Ali (Gonzalo) with the new detective, Kyle (McPartlin) also didn't work for me, partly because I wasn't sure how I was supposed to view them. There wasn't enough chemistry between them to make them believable as a potential romantic pairing. They didn't work closely together on the case, so I couldn't consider them partners, and they fell short of being rivals as well.
I had hoped the movie would have spent a little more time on Kyle's background, especially since the movie hinted he had something to do with Ali's husband's murder (both from her recognizing his face and him seeming to know more about it than he probably should). Unfortunately, while that could have potentially been the most interesting thing about this movie, it didn't become important until the very end, in a way I can only assume is setting up a potential sequel. I'm not so certain I'd watch it.
Final Opinion: Truthfully, this felt more like an episode for a television series than a movie, with a weak mystery that seemed more like a set up to a larger story. I probably would have preferred that to the movie format.
My Grade: C-
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