A Killer Within (2004), Director: Brad Keller; Screenplay: Chris Peirson & William Peirson; Cast: C. Thomas Howell, Sean Young, Ben Browder, Giancarlo Esposito; Dedee Pfeiffer

Reviewed by Vero G. Caravette

In the extras included on the CD, the writer of Killer Within says a lot of things, among them, (and this is a paraphrase) 'I'll never look at a movie in the same way. It's all so much work to get it up there on the screen.'

Indeed it is. Unfortunately the writer and her son (with whom she claims to have written the movie, though he does not appear in the extras) will have to take a hard look at her movie and admit that even though it was undoubtedly a lot of work, it isn't really a good movie.

The idea behind the movie is an interesting one if not a new one, but the script and the direction conspire together to torpedo the effort and make a spectacular and painful wreck of it.

The protagonists are a pair of lawyers, Addison Terrill and Sam Moss, who were childhood pals, law school buddies, assistant district attorneys together, and, finally, law partners in a strange little firm (both having decided that it was time to stop working and cash in on the corporate side of law). Both are married to good-looking women. But only Addison has a child. His pal Sam can't seem to get his own wife pregnant. Instead Sam's wife spends her time lamenting her barrenness and babysitting for Addison and Becky's child whom the mother seems not only not interested in but downright hostile to.

Addison and Sam deal with cases, shoot golf balls across an expanse of water and complain about life. But life is good. Each lives in a house of mansion proportions, each has wealth beyond measure and few problems. (Except, of course, in one's case not being able to get pregnant, and in the other's case having a wife who hates her child and despises her husband even more, if that's possible.)

One evening the husband returns home to find his wife murdered and his child in a coma or is it just unconscious - it's a mystery; probably a more difficult mystery is how the child was injured to the extent that he was considering the minimal fall he took.

Now, the hunt is on for the killer -- attention is focused immediately on, Sonny Bruton (get it? Brute --on?) a just released murderer who Addison had put away some years before when working in the DA's office. And, shockingly, the lawyer was never apprised of the fact that the killer was to be released.

I won't give away any more of the plot. It has some not unexpected twists - you just know it can't be the crazed killer who's been put back on the streets. He's too convenient. And too wild-looking to be believed or believable. No, can't be him. Then who?

The acting, well, most of it anyway, is the saving grace of the film. It doesn't really save it but it gives you a reason not to kick yourself too hard for paying good money to rent it. C. Thomas Howell (Addison) is a familiar face but his over-acting leaves a lot to be desired; it's easy to see why his wife despises him. Sean Young, who plays his wife, also seems lost in her part. If the wife is truly as bad as Young portrays her, then you'd think the husband would've killed her a while back and saved the movie from having been made.

Ben Browder, the star of the Sci Fi Channel's creative series Farscape is one of the better actors - but the script is so bad even he is caught it the quicksand of it's fatal flaws. Still, he is one of the better moments in the film.

Giancarlo Esposito, (who plays the disaffected detective whose career and life was ruined by Addison but who comes to his aid anyway), however, is the star of the show and its chief saving grace. The film seems to take off when he comes on screen. It's a short trip however - even his outstanding performance can't make it move too far. While he is compelling to watch, the script takes every opportunity to undermine him. He does attempt to wrestle with the writing and even squeezes some good moments out of it. But it's just not enough to make it worth wasting time on this movie.