The Dancing Detective: A Deadly Tango

Hallmark seems insistent on inexplicably killing all of its successful mystery series and replacing them with mediocre replacements. This latest iteration features Lacey Chabert playing a police detective and Will Kemp playing a dance teacher/actor. They fake being married to solve a murder case in Malta.

First off, the production value of this movie was terrific. It's also nice to see new faces both in front of and behind the camera. I love that both Lacey and Will were EPs on this because it felt like a true partnership in solving the mystery and both characters were equally important. Oftentimes these mysteries only have the female lead as the EP and the story tends to be focused on her with the male lead as supporting. That was not the case here. Lacey and Will also have great chemistry and I liked all the Easter eggs of mentioning other tv detectives. And Will finally gets to use his own accent.

The mystery itself was not very interesting or well developed and I figured out who the murderer was in the first 10 minutes. Also, nobody in 2023 has a paper copy of a boarding pass just lying around before going to the airport. I'd watch more of these jetsetting dancing mysteries but preferably with a different writer. Probably the best of these new mystery series.

High profile CEO Mark Aston is poisoned in Malta. He's the brother of a Senator who insists on sending his own investigator. In Lorimar Cove, New York, detective Constance Bailey (Lacey Chabert) is obsessive and likes to work alone. She gets sent to Malta. She is forced to go undercover in a dance competition, but she can't dance. Her dance partner is arrogant teacher Sebastian Moore (Will Kemp) and they are pretending to be married.

The setup is way too clunky. The heart of the movie is Chabert and Kemp's chemistry. It's the classic 'she's frustrated and grows in love with him'. Chabert is always lovely. Kemp has the nice combination of infuriating and endearing. They are good together. That's half the battle with any Hallmark movie. It's too bad that the other half isn't that good. The writing definitely needs help. This is much more about seeing a non-dancing Chabert trying to dance. It's her own Dancing with the Stars.

I was really looking forward to a new movie with Lacey Chabert and Will Kemp. I know these 2 are wonderful together so it was just an awful script. The disjointed plot, the sequence of events and the dialog was terrible.

I was hoping it would be a series but it's going to have to improve tenfold. It was as if they were short on time and cut out entire scenes that were integral to the flow of the movie. What a downer.

I've seen every Hallmark movie starring these actors so I know they are fantastic together but I guess even their chemistry can't save a bad movie. Please give them some decent material to work with next time!

If you get the chance, watch them in Love, Romance & Chocolate and Christmas Waltz. I have watched these movies many times over! Absolutely love both the acting and the scripts!

Lacey Chabert has been a favorite of mine since she starred in Party of Five many years ago. I've thoroughly enjoyed many of her Hallmark movies, and The Crossword Mysteries are absolutely amazing! So, naturally I was really excited to see this new movie... Wow, was I disappointed. The script was stale, boring & just plain unimaginative.

I mean, I know these mystery movies pretty much stick to a formula, but the script for this one was so horribly predictable I had it solved almost immediately. Crossword Mysteries, Garage Sale Mysteries, Mystery 101... ALL of these are far superior to this one.

The only thing that *was* inspiring is the location. Now that was beautiful, but I don't have to lose hours of my valuable time to view the breathtaking images of Malta/Italy... I can simply look up images on my computer & save myself the disappointment of watching this movie.

I had been looking forward to this movie and sadly my wait wasn't worthwhile. Great leads, good chemistry and acting, beautiful scenery, however none of this could save a dreadful script. Weak from the first minute.

You take someone who supposedly is not a dancer and without any real lessons or hours of practicing turns into a top-notch dancer. Really? As for the ridiculous car/scooter chase around the streets of Malta, words truly do fail me.

As a longtime fan of Hallmark and your Mysteries this one is a real BIG loser and I sincerely hope you are not planning on making this into a series. Put you time, effort and money into something with a lot more substance that this. Thank you.