Too Late to Say Goodbye

An unhappily married woman, Jean Corbin, commits suicide. The beginning of this film is very good - a little boy crosses the street and a neighbor sees his toes are bloody. That's the end of the artistic touch.

Jean is married to a dentist, played by Rob Lowe. You can see that if she had a jealous bone in her body, her marriage would be difficult. She's convinced he's having an affair with his assistant.

Distressed, she does what any married woman does to find comfort. She goes on an Internet chat room and meets a guy named Chris. Love blossoms. She wants out of her marriage.

It takes awhile, but Chris finally confesses he's a woman named Marion. Jean agrees to meet her for some reason, but Marion feels they can overlook the fact that Jean is straight and move in together.

So you can see Jean has a couple of reasons why her life might be better if she left it.

Her sister (Lauren Holly) believes her husband Barry (that would be Rob) killed Jean and wants a police detective (Michelle Hurd) to help her prove it.

We see flashbacks of Barry before Jean. It's the '80s. We know because the woman in the flashback has huge hair, and Rick Astley is playing in the background. And Rob looks the way he does in the present. Really they needed a younger actor. The man was 45 when this film was made.

We don't see a real embellishment of his character- he's crying, he's concerned about his children, and the next minute he's an obvious, threatening control freak.

Rob Lowe does a great job - but really he's the only good thing in it.

TOO LATE TO SAY GOODBYE

*WARNING: ANIMAL ABUSE/DEATH AS A PLOT DEVICE (see below)

Told in semi flashback, the movie opens with Jenn Corbin's (Stefanie von Pfetten) apparent suicide. Then in retrospect, we see how Jenn and Bart Corbin (Rob Lowe) met, fell in love, had their children, and how their marriage disintegrated, due to Bart's controlling behavior.

Bart Corbin is a dentist, and his assistant Dara (Katie Griffin) is a bit snarky to his wife Jenn. Jenn thinks Bart & Dara are having an affair, so Jenn seeks solace online. She begins an internet affair with someone named Chris. He's supposed to own a plant nursery in St. Louis, but is he really what he seems?

At the same time, Bart, begins insinuating to Jenn's family she's having a breakdown. He's handsome, successful, and very convincing. Jenn pleads with her family to believe her, Bart is becoming violent, controlling and she's afraid. His outbursts are more over the top, but still, everyone is loathe to believe Jenn.

When we return to the present, Detective Ann Roche (Michelle Hurd) and Detective Sam Malveau (Marc Bendavid) work tirelessly on the case. Now, Jenn's sister, Heather (Lauren Holly) can see the truth about her brother-in-law. Heather never gives up trying to prove Bart's guilt. Her tenaciousness leads her to another 'suicide', one of Bart's college girlfriends. Heather works with police to try to get justice for both women. Will it be enough to put him behind bars?

WHAT WORKS: *Most of the performances in this TV movie are believable. The actors, Lauren Holly, Yannick Bisson, Michelle Hurd, Marc Bendavid, and of course, Rob Lowe, are a step above the usual faire, so it's more engaging.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK: *There's not enough foreshadowing about Bart's true personality. One minute, he's a great guy, the next evil. There should have been more scenes where we, the viewer, see him as Jenn sees him.

*The flashback to the '80's DOES NOT WORK! And playing Rick Astley in the back ground, and giving the girl big hair, does not convince me that 2009 Rob Lowe, is really 1987 Rob Lowe. We all know what Rob Lowe looked like in the '80's, and this is not it! It would have been better to get one of his son's to play him as a younger man, or some other look a like, because this is a FAIL.

TO RECOMMEND, OR NOT TO RECOMMEND, THAT IS THE QUESTION: *I would recommend this movie. It has a great cast, and they do a good job with made-for-tv movie material.

CLOSING NOTES: *I don't believe in trigger warnings, I think WOKE is a virus. BUT, I also don't agree with supporting movies that use animal abuse/murder as a plot point, to show a character is evil. It is lazy writing, and in most cases should be quashed. This movie does use a cat's kidnapping\disappearance at the hands of a psycho, as a plot device.

*This is a Made-For-TV movie, please keep that in mind before you watch\rate it. TV movies have a much lower budget, and so your expectations should be adjusted.

*I have no connection to the film, or production in ANY way. I am just an honest viewer, who wishes for more straight forward reviews. Hope I helped you out.

The acting is all sound good, the story line is interesting, the cinematography is pretty bleh and they do the worst job ever of un-aging Rob Lowe for a flashback, but overall yeah I enjoyed it.

This is an engaging movie... not the best, but certainly watchable. What makes this movie remarkable, however, is Rob Lowe's stellar performance. I mean, this guy is on fire! I've seen him in a few things and have never given him much that much thought, but that he could turn in such a world class performance in what is essentially a throw-away (although certainly decent) movie is a testament to what an incredible talent he must be. I am not joking. He is really good in this... he had me laughing out loud several times, not because he was funny but simply because I was in awe of how well he delivered this or that line. Just as "Batman: The Dark Knight" wasn't that good a movie but was elevated by Heath Ledger's performance, so is this TV movie elevated into true art by the solid acting performances, especially Lowe's. Recommended!

I was caught up watching this right away, reading on the screen this was a true story, which immediately takes off with a neighbor opening th front door after a knock one late night, finding the neighboring kid with bare feet covered in blood. The blood is from the mother, which seems to have shot herself. Then the film tells both the continuation of the effect this has on the relatives and friends, as we also neatly are told in retrospect what happened up to the tragic event of finding her shot on the bed.

The film is very good hand work, and the acting is excellent, especially from Rob Lowe, playing the dentist husband Bart Corbin is excellent. No wonder his career is back on track. This shows his acting skills. Stephanie von Pfetten, which plays the dead woman which we also get to know retrospectively does great. Her sister is played by Lauren Holley, also doing that role great. We're neatly introduced to the fact of a family not functioning, with the parents blaming each other.

The good hand work is showed in the film's pace, the storytelling and even in the narration and music. We also find the story building up suspension about what happened up to her death, where several is involved. The sister believes Bart killed her. And a female detective, played by Michele Hurd, is doing a great investigative job. We follow the investigation in an interesting way, unveiling the story.

When I went to rate this on IMDb I was really baffled by the low score. I expected this to have a rating of 6 or 7, but 4,8??? I really think the ratings here tend to be very right, but this is an exception of the rule. I think this might be due to no dramatic ending. Well, this is a drama, not a fictional crime story. Well, it's far better than this rating in all aspects, and is well worth a watch. A good TV- movie about a true story.