Strong and Moving!

Good concept, poorly executed.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

It might be hard to believe this story if it wasn't true. For the record, I'd never heard of any of this until I watched this, nor have I read the book. I cannot comment on how close this stays to the actual events. I understand that this is a comedy, and I suppose I can see how some, maybe even most, would find it funny. Not a single thing made me crack a hint of a smile in this, but then again, I do not have a great tolerance for unbelievably irritating and obnoxious women, and apart from this featuring that one from According to Jim who's being so is her sole "joke"(not that that show has a lot of hilarity going on anyway... I digress), the lead is also portraying one such individual. I don't blame the actress. In fact, let's clear that up right away: The performances are spot-on, everyone is credible, and Davis does marvelous. I would guess that the behavior is close to that of the real Sante, and *she* is the one I have the real beef with. The plot is interesting enough, and well-told. Pacing is good. The editing and cinematography are nice. This holds mild violence, disturbing content and a little sexuality. I recommend this to those who like films about con artists. 7/10

This mother-and-son couple (sometimes a triple, if they pick up another nasty type along their merry way) travel around the country insinuating their way into people's lives, bilking and killing them. It's based on a true story and it's done in a documentary style, with "witnesses" being "interviewed" on camera and so forth.I don't really know how accurate it is historically, not having followed the actual case -- two tawdry pinheads who see others as nothing more than targets. In real life, Mrs. Kimes, like some other people who are into manipulation and power, was probably stomach-churning. There's a pun lurking in there somewhere. "Kimes" = "chyme." "Stomach-churning." (An awful pun, come to think of it. Can I take it back?)The movie is played for laughs. Murders take place off screen. Everyone overacts as if projecting to the farther rows of the Colosseum. Especially Judy Davis. She wears this TERRIFIC black wig that comes across like a Bishop's miter. The gyri of her overly made-up face constantly rearrange themselves like a holographic relief map of various rugged areas -- Bashkortistan, Nepal, The Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes -- morphed from one to another by computer graphics. My God, I never knew there were so many expressions available to the human puss. Her gestures are equally broad and her voice changes from wheedling to shrieking in a picosecond as circumstances demand.Her proper-looking son on the other hand, though obedient, is reserved and efficient in a more ruthless, less theatrical way.They must have had a lot of fun making this movie about two serial killers. All the stops are pulled out. If you liked "Mommie Dearest" you ought to love this one. They could use the same tag line -- "The Biggest Mother of Them All."

Jonathan Jackson was the best thing about the movie. Judy Davis had the showier role, but it was Jackson who drew me in. Kenny's arc, from a teenager who tried to rebel against his mother but failed, to a young killer, to a broken man too pretty to last in jail, to a hardened prisoner finally coming out from under his mother's thumb, was epic. And Jackson's subtle, powerful performance actually made me feel empathy for what in reality is a convicted murderer. Now that's good acting.This kid is impressive. He led me through Kenny's transformation, from his rebellion to his capitulation and despair, and then to his rebirth into a killer, and final transformation into becoming a man, in a sense, by separating himself from his mother. The human and weirdly Oedipal undertones in this movie were fascinating.I enjoyed it.

"A Little Thing Called Murder" is another TV movie about Sante and Kenny Kimes, the real-life mother and son con artist/murder team. The first film starred Mary Tyler Moore and focused mainly on the murder of Irene Silverman, the New York woman killed for her brownstone and whose body was never found. (Court TV also did a documentary on them.) In this version, the murder of Irene is at the end of the movie. Director Richard Benjamin takes us through the bizarre life of Sante, with each crime a new episode that begins with the title "A Little" - which is how Sante thought of her crimes - A Little Problem with the Maid (slavery), A Little Problem with the Check, etc.Now in prison, Sante Kimes must be in life as over the top as depicted by Mary Tyler Moore - and if you thought Moore was outrageous, wait until you see Judy Davis sink her teeth into Sante. The approach in this film is more of dark comedy, though much of it is quite shocking. Davis' performance can only be described as out there - and probably accurate. Sante thoroughly corrupts her young son, played here by adorable Jonathan Jackson, which makes his crimes and killings all the more horrible. She sets fire to the family home for insurance; she takes a test drive in a car and holds onto it for a year; her Mexican help are actually slaves; she shoplifts, and when caught, she hits her son and goes after the security guard; the two claim to the cops that the security guard slapped Kenny and leave; she hides her husband's death so she can clean out his Bahamian bank accounts; and finally, of course, the Silverman case. In real life, not shown here, Sante actually posed as Silverman, an 82-year-old, in order to sign some papers.Catch Davis performing "Santa Baby" with a boa and you'll know you've entered the twilight zone. She's a scream. The film is very well done, interesting, and intriguing. But don't look for motives or reasons. The writers deliberately didn't explore them. Sante is so nuts, though, one wonders if she hadn't lost sight of her original demons years earlier.