A bit overrated, but still an amazing film

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

The Boulder, Colorado crime scene: a murdered 6-year-old girl from an affluent family on Christmas Day, her body found in the basement of her parents' maze-like house some eight hours after they reported her missing. This begins a chain of events that leads to lies, deception, bruised egos, terminated careers, fallen reputations, lawsuits, and so much ill will and bad blood that Boulder is probably still reeling from the after-shocks of this case. Excellent docudrama, a four-hour movie for television chronicling the baffling murder investigation beginning in 1996, makes its case right from the start: that it is irrelevant how much time has transpired since the actual crime occurred (irrelevant, also, how many years have passed since this movie originally aired in 2000). A compulsively watchable and gripping tapestry of lives, it doesn't matter how resigned the viewer may be to the fact this headline-making yarn is pretty much unsolvable--it is done with enormous skill and a keen-eyed sensibility. Director Lawrence Schiller and writer Tom Torpor, who adapted Schiller's book, have an awful lot of material to sift through, and dozens of complicated characters to introduce us to, yet they do so with clarity and aplomb. It would be next to impossible to eliminate scenes or characters without leaving unanswered questions behind, so the running time is justified; still, I did grow tired of a sub-plot involving a "bottom feeder" reporter from a tabloid journal, and Kris Kristofferson's homicide detective Lou Smit never quite comes to life (Smit stood steadfastly behind the child's accused parents, and had a nifty summation of events which he proclaimed in a private session, yet much of the time we don't know where Smit stands with some of the evidence gathered--or why he seemed to believed the parents' story from the get-go). The film is frustrating and yet uncanny, well-informed and yet cloudy. The case has not been solved--and the movie isn't satisfying on an emotional level as a result--yet the release we want to get from it is transposed into mind-boggling food for thought. The large cast is superb, particularly Ken Howard as District Attorney Alex Hunter (who waged a war of words and actions with the Colorado Police Dept.) and Marg Helgenberger as the child's erratic mother. The wealthy parents, who stonewalled the police for four months and seemed to lead everyone in charge around by the hand, are two of the most fascinating murder witnesses in criminal history, and this is most likely the best examination of them we'll ever get on film.

In the Christmas of 1996, a young girl is kidnapped and found dead in her house. The police suspects of her mother but have many difficulties in the search, since her family is very rich and uses the lawyers to hold the investigation. Yesterday I saw "Perfect Murder, Perfect Town: JonBenét and the City of Boulder" and I became very upset with this boring inconclusive long movie. The story begins without any development of the characters, the children is kidnapped and found murdered in the first ten minutes, and then the dull story becomes linear, without any plot point. I was expecting a huge twist in the end of the story, but it finishes without any conclusion. This flick could never last more than 40 minutes running time! My vote is four.Title (Brazil): "Crime na Cidade Perfeita" ("Crime in the Perfect City")

This movie, Perfect Murder, Perfect Town: JonBenét and the City of Boulder is a very good crime drama movie based on the true story that stars Ronny Cox, Marg Helgenberger, Kris Kristofferson, and John Heard! All of these actors and the rest of the cast are excellent! I was very surprised how Cox and Helgenberger acted. Their performances are remarkable! In My opinion everything is fine such as the editing, music, and directing in the film. The movie is about three hours long and during this time it really keeps you guessing who did it! If you want to see one of the most unbelievable crimes in history told in a great movie and like the cast mentioned above in great performances than I strongly recommend this film!

This movie premiered through FOXTEL and my whole family had remembered this tragic event taking place. Now I have a very good memory an I must say with all honesty I cannot remember this!!!All the actors did a great job especially Marg who delivers great scenes when Patsy is in shock etc. Outlining every little thing in this case in 4 hours was well done although i hope oneday someone will make a hollywood version of the parents doing it or an intruder.Chilling murder ever since i watched this ive become rather drawn to this case, I cant understand how The police stuffed up so bad. I reccommend this to anyone that enjoys a good story.