Too much of everything

Powerful

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Writers Richard Levinson and William Link open this drama for CBS very unfairly: a smug, self-assured criminal attorney (Anthony Hopkins) gives a speech on the profitable business of murder to his amused colleagues just before slipping out unnoticed, breaking into his own house and shooting his wife (Blythe Danner). He then fantasizes his own day in court, with himself as both witness and prosecutor. But it turns out the entire opening is a rather elaborate ruse to get our attention; the remaining drama derives from the false-front marriage of this cheating husband--who has also been abusive--and his kissless spouse, both of whom have their reasons for wanting the other eliminated. Stultifying exercise must have looked promising on paper--how else to explain the presence of Hopkins in a made-for-TV movie?--but Columbo would have reached these same conclusions in less than an hour.

Hopkins always delivers his svelte, arrogant and yet intimidating and refreshing self to any performance. Blythe Danner as his beleaguered wife, in an unhappy marriage. Hopkins, an esteemed trial attorney, plays the Socratic "what if?" hypothesis game with himself, as he debates how to rid himself of his bothersome wife.Blythe Danner, however, is an equal match. She is not to be fooled. She utilizes her patrician hauteur and surprise when she discovers his one (of several) mistresses. Swoosie Kurtz portrays a young sometime lover, Jackie, who at first seems to be in league with Hopkins. She plays the damsel in distress, and Danner is intrigued.There is an interesting twist at the conclusion, which I will not spoil. Suffice to say, well worth watching for murder and mayhem as only Anthony Hopkins can project on the screen. 8/10.

As my brother might say, "This has more twists than a bag of pretzels."I wasn't expecting much and came out with feeling of extreme satisfaction, for this film is great. The beginning is a little slow but it soon picks up speed quickly and then you are on the edge of your seat.Some people said 'GuiltyConscience' was predictable, but I severely disagree. Not only did Ihave no idea was was going to happen, but I gasped out loud at several points. The plot was simple but complicated. Hopkins was fantastic as the scheming husband and cross examiner. The rest of the cast was excellent as well. Thoroughly entertaining.Check this film out if you are looking for interesting mystery-drama; you won't regret it.

Lots of nice words about Hopkins and Danner in these reviews - which I both believe did a fantastic job in this play...but PLEASE....the quirky character played by SWOOSIE KURTZ is - by far - the most fascinating and her performance the most whimsically memorable in this wonderful murder mystery.Even if I know what's going to happen, I love to run into this fascinating movie and it becomes new every time.