Touches You

Simply A Masterpiece

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Well, I went to a DVD exchange store looking for the 1984's classic, and the attendant came to me with this. After asking which year it's been released in, she responded me it was the 84's. Long story short: I was fooled. The internet comments towards this made me feel like I was about to have one of the worst film sessions of my life but, fortunately, in fact, I ended up enjoying this version. "Crimes of Passion" delighted me due to its fast paced story; there are a lot of things going on all the time, so you never have time to get things straight. The plot is filled with people with bad spirit; characters you think you're liking are, most of the time, just another deception. So, that being said, it's evident that we're given a lot of twists that bring some surprise to the story-- albeit appealing to the old greedy moral lesson we've all seen before. Also, I agree that some twists are over the top, making me doubt whether I was seeing a good movie or not. Either way, defects aside, "Crimes of Passion" is a very entertaining picture for those who like suspenseful thrillers, and maybe the female attendant wasn't that mean with me.

Very well-acted and suspenseful story that heaps on the surprises and is full of suspense.Dina Meyer is superb as a sexy, back-stabbing ice queen who has made a career of filing sexual-harassment suits. Awww.....She can't help it she's so gorgeous!Jonathan Higgins is very entertaining as Jerry, an emotionally unstable, alcoholic philanderer who erroneously thinks he's smarter than everyone else.Amy Sloan does well as Jerry's beleaguered wife, despite being saddled with the familiar role of the Lifetime heroine who triumphs in the end.John H. Brennan, looking like a perfectly coiffed and manicured soap-opera star, is a little too handsome to have been cast as a venal investigator but he excels in the slimy part.I loved Harry Standjofski and Can Anvar as dueling lawyers. Their acerbic back-and-forth made for some exceptionally sparkling dialogue. Vlasta Vrana also maintained interest in the small but interesting role of a businessman reluctant to get screwed by his subordinates.In addition to the interesting if sometimes superficial characterizations here, this film features several truly creepy, suspenseful sequences. I am not too proud to admit they had me hiding my eyes!In all, this was much, much better than I expected for a Lifetime film.

The bare outline of this story is familiar, as several reviewers have noted. But many successful theatrical thrillers also tread familiar narrative ground. The thriller is a genre that covers a relatively limited range of plot lines, but we don't mind, provided the story has some element of originality, the characters are engaging and the direction is well paced and properly suspenseful. It's unfortunate that the brief description of the plot contained on some venues already gives away the central twist. Still, there's enough left to keep the viewer engaged. The acting is uneven, from the typical Lifetime amateurishness to a few professional performances, especially in this case from Amy Sloan, playing the wife of the male lead. But what kept this viewer engaged was the story line, which was good enough for a theatrical release - IF a bigger budget, a better director and better actors were provided. Nonetheless, this movie is far better than what we expect from Lifetime. The plot line, even when sometimes predictable, never drags and the twists, even when anticipated, somehow work. Crimes of Passion is worth your time.

Another TV production, so why to watch ? I tell you...It got (Dina Meyer) in it, OHH then let's watch it for sure ! The movie got on it the name of (Brad Mirman) the writer of cinematic slick flicks like (Body of Evidence - 1993). In fact this kind of sexual thrillers became a common fashion after the exploding of (Basic Instinct) at the start of the 1990s to have movies like : (Sliver - 1993), (Jade - 1995), (Wild Things - 1998). So (Crimes of Passion - 2005) is just tracking this previous work yet by the average TV's measures, and without the heavy sexuality. But all in all it looked like another rip-off from the good old (Double Indemnity - 1944) !Maybe the chain of surprises at the first half was good however the cold acting with the very very traditional direction ruined it. And the second half was completely predictable for me. Although I'm a scriptwriter but it doesn't take one to disclose it because any moviegoer with brain can uncover the whole thing, and at the middle of it also. I was guessing a lot of twists that some of them turned out to be better than the original ones eventually. For instance : the hidden conspiracy between (Meyer) and the other man conceals more malicious conspiracy between (Meyer) and the grasping wife (Rebecca Walker), and perhaps they're lesbians too !, or some things like that.The main weak points were : too many dialogues, yes, it's a TV but not a TV series ! Not to mention that the writer forgot about a consecutive commercials would interrupt it all the time ! The assured hypothesis that (Jerry) or the husband or whoever the jerky victim was, would kill for the sake of his hot mistress ! Why it's that assured ?? Over and above that twist at the end, when the wife takes the money for herself, it's nothing but a try to make you leave your seat feeling deceitfully that it's overall kind of a new. As they knew so well that you've already watched the same story so many times before especially at the near 1990s, however it was hotter and more artistic in previous movies!Speaking of which, I enjoyed the wicked, haunting, very steamy presence of (Dina Meyer). She's hot in every possible way. Her way of talking, looking, moving was purely electrifying. Her intro is one of the best scenes I've ever watched in a TV work. I will never ever forget her coquettish gaze at the elevator, with or without the camera abutting her lovely butt in that tide black dress previously for the whole first 3 minutes ! She was bigger than the little movie, better than ones preceded her in the same role such as (Sharon Stone, Linda Fiorentino, ..), and she was the only miscast one in here indeed as nobody was bright as her. Which makes you wonder, why she's still stray in movies like this away from being a movie star in Hollywood ?? where there are many who really don't deserve such fuss, or such blockbusters, in comparison !It's too ordinary, close to poor, movie with good plot but familiar, and without too much renewal except being weaker than its likes, with ironically a lead star who was stronger than her likes !