Suitcase Killer: The Melanie McGuire Story

I love true story drama movies. This movie was great because it allowed it dealt with the flaws of both characters. The husband who was a womanizer with a gambling addiction, and a wife who was cheating and also was driven to purchase the home of her dreams. Was it his gambling addiction that got him killed or did his wife want him out of her life after she got what she wanted? I watched the movie 3 times because I found it enjoyable and interesting to watch.

This film twisted the actual facts to make the victim Bill McGuire appear an aggressive, philandering, gambling addicted husband and his premeditated killer to be victimized. This does not even mirror the convicted killer's own story. She was having an affair w her married boss for YEARS- including family outings with both families- before she killed Bill to pursue a life with him. That was her motive, period. Unprovoked. They had their first sexual encounter at work when she was 9 months pregnant in his office- not after both kids were born. The actual story was interesting enough without embellishing it with victim trashing. Pretty disgusted.

Often when reading reviews regarding true crime, a thought in the back of my mind is some reviewers may have a stake in the game - someone who was impacted in real life {or even imagined} by a case, and as such, the review may carry a predetermined bias. Similar to when you read the 5-star or 1-star reviews of a product on Amazon.

Be assured I had no stake whatsoever in the Suitcase Killer case. I was in a true crime mood and came upon this one, but had never heard of the McGuire case before viewing it.

But I do have a motive in writing this review, and that is to note the continued slide of Lifetime beyond the cesspool into an ever deepening abyss. The vast majority of Hollywood has made it abundantly and increasingly clear for decades that they detest God and people of faith, and are more than eager to trash Him {and us} at every turn. Maybe Lifetime has been doing this for a while now without my knowledge, but here's a news flash to them, and multiple other networks: The majority of Americans dont find blasphemous language in a show entertaining, nor do we ever find it necessary, in any fashion. Lifetime is one network that used to show restraint in regard to this. No longer.

The lead actress was respectable in her role here, but everyone else was cookie cutter performance level. And all Lifetime did by choosing to blaspheme God repeatedly here was turn this one from forgettable to unwatchable. This is one viewer who wont be hurrying back to seek a repeat performance anytime soon. In reality, 1 star is 1 too many.

From what I've read about this case, this movie is another addition, in a long line, of movies that are so loosely based on the true story, that they're pretty much just fiction apart from the names. My problem with this movie, in particular, is that it is so obviously trying to excuse the murderer, and in order for them to do that, they have to make the victim look as though he "deserved" to be killed. How disgusting is it to twist the facts so much that you slander a murder victim simply because he's male and his murderer is female. It sickens me. Make a movie featuring the facts, instead of an elaborate fiction that makes the killer out to be justified in what happened.

Too bad they chose to go with that instead of just showing the facts... People can watch it as fiction but unfortunately, people will watch this thinking this is based on the truth of the case.