A rich local businessman crashes his Bentley and dies. The man's sister (Barbara Summers) is in Samantha's book group and asks her to come along to the will reading for moral support. When the man's wife and daughter inherit the imaginatively titled Summer Corp, Barbara informs lawyer Robert Benson that she owned half and Avery half however Benson is adamant that Barbara had signed away her half of the company when a previous venture was tied up. Samantha doesn't know quite what to believe when Barbara then starts throwing out conspiracy theories about Avery's last few hours but supports her anyway. When Barbara is then murdered, Sam decides to pick up on the mystery and work out what happened behind the two deaths.
The Mystery Woman series is a bit of an acquired taste and does require its target audience to be those used to the standards of tvm mystery series. A Hallmark presentation, this film does the basics as well as the series, which is to say that it isn't much cop but might just about do the job for those happy to settle for less on a lazy afternoon. The plot is interesting enough but it is delivered without much effort, undermining the mystery. It is hard to really pin this on one thing but clunky dialogue scenes that explain things for the viewer are one peeve while the constant "tinkly" music is annoying and reduces any tension in the telling. Director Brown does little to mark himself out and delivers the look and feel of the series ie generic and safe.
The cast struggle with the unnatural dialogue and thus can't convince in the mystery as real people. Martin is cool but her lines are mostly heavy while the material also asks her to take illogical actions. Williams is stuck in a weird subplot regarding "Uncle Charlie" and has little to do other than float around the edges being all mysterious and ex-CIA or whatever. Siemaszko is constantly going somewhere with a latte in her hand and that is pretty much all her character is about. She is so-so but does little. The support cast is all very "red-herring" with a weird turn from Janasz as Charlie, a hyper McCormack as Barbara and Burke, Lively, Greenquist and others all drift round being secretive and slightly sinister.
Overall then a basic mystery film with basic tvm direction, a solid plot, clunky dialogue and so-so performances. Will just about do the business for those used to the standards of daytime tvm mystery films but your average viewer will probably give it up as a bad job within an hour. Fans of the series will be "pleased" to see the thread about the Mystery Woman book store's plumbing starting here to later be picked up in "Redemption" in 2006.
