Secrets in the Water

This could've been a great who done it but...the acting was terrible by 98% of the cast! The scenery was beautiful and the story was interesting just very badly portrayed. They could have spent more time in the beginning focusing on the background of the characters and their relationships to one another. I feel like there were a lot of holes that could have been filled to make it smoothly transition from the introduction of the characters to the murder, to the investigations of potential suspects and finally the climax. Worst of all, it doesn't take Sherlock Holmes or even Dora the Explorer to figure out who the murderer is. I chalk that up mostly to awful acting. If you are looking for a decent thriller/mystery, skip this one.

Oh my gosh, how does stuff like this get financed and distributed? I was craving some Hawaiian scenery and got sucked in by how bad this was, I couldn't look away...the script, the costumes, the 'special effects', etc. I laughed out loud at the knife scene, what was it made out of, rubber coated in tin foil?

Why couldn't anyone act? I know that there is a talented acting community in Hawaii, so even if you aren't flying people in from elsewhere, why weren't talented locals utilized. Was this a student film. No, it would have been better.

The location was stunning so I guess I got that out of it.

As a storyline, it was ok, but too easy to see who killed Mia by watching Bailey's expressions. Acting of all cast was on a par with daytime soaps. Ok to watch if you've grown tired of watching the shapes of clouds above.

The acting in this was so bad it was difficult to watch to the end but I had to see if the obvious killer was the actual killer or if there was a twist. No twist. It seems they spent a lot of money on the location but not enough on actors or props. They didn't even do a decent job of cutting cardboard into the shape of a knife blade & painting it gray. And that poor sheriff could have been fitted with a much better toupee. It's hard to use up 600 required characters for a review when the movie is this shallow & transparent. What more can I say? It wasn't good and I don't recommend watching it unless you're desperate.

Cerina Vincent does a wonderful job in her role. Her next door neighbor is alright. No one else in the movie can act AT ALL. It's honestly embarrassing to watch. Emily Skinner *might* have done alright but she is given such horrible lines that it's impossible to tell.

I had forgiveness for the film at first because it said it was based on true events. It's full of ridiculous and completely unbelievable lines, motivations, and details but I thought.. oh well maybe it's just an actually insane story. After researching I came to find this: "Albeit the inspiration isn't drawn from specific characters, several stories alluding to murders, like that of Mia, have erupted in the past, giving creators the creative liberty to create a storyline along such lines." So, in other words, when they say it's based on true events they are COMPLETELY LYING.

The premise was good. Unfortunately it was incredibly predictable and full of insanely unbelievable details including: a sheriff running a homicide investigation instead of a detective, a sheriff giving an unchecked cell phone back to a parent a week after a crime, yet hanging onto the body for weeks, a tiny town being completely unaffected by a teenagers murder, 2 teens in a tiny town being last entry & runner up for the same fancy French art school, a child that is supposedly poor and seen as "trailer trash" living in a massive Hawaiian home, a restraining order against a grieving mother being issued in a matter of an hour or so after two contacts, a sheriff handing evidence to a grieving mother to read and declaring the case closed while still later forensically analyzing said evidence because the case was apparently not closed, etc. Then there is the confession. Just.. what? The dialogue in this seen is unparalleled. It's shockingly bad. I cannot believe this script was approved or that this poor actor/ actress (to avoid spoiler) was actually expected to split this drivel out. No one would say this. No murderer is this instantly self aware. It's... annoying.

And then there is the knife. The cardboard, spray painted knife. Why???