Radio Silence

Extremely predictable, nothing new or unique about it. Shallow characters. Poor storyline.

I enjoyed this film. It's not a masterpiece but it's not just a 5 star film for sure. If you are a normal human who wants to see a normal movie, go for it.

Therapist Dr. Jill Peterman (Georgina Haig) is the host of a popular Minneapolis relationship radio show. She is hard on a caller named Alexis who apparently shoots herself on the air. One year later, she is distressed about the incident and refuses to return to radio. She reluctantly restarts her show in part to help her failing producer and in part to better help her callers. She starts doing the show completely differently. Someone claiming to be Alexis calls and Jill starts getting harassed by her.

I was waiting for this movie to go bad. Sure, the production value is not that high but I like the stalking. The first half is perfectly fine and Haig is a good actress. There has to be a reason for a rating below 5. Then comes the idiot police. It's always the idiot police. The movie does these hints but they are way too big. It's nice to have some red herrings but I don't like them shoved in my face. The biggest problem is that it runs out of suspects. Finally, there is only one left and the climax is flatter than it ought to be. Still, this is a better murder mystery than most TV murder mysteries.

Dr. Jill, a psychologist radio personality, wrestles with guilt when one of her listeners, after receiving her advice to "end this pathetic life" of allowing a man to cheat on her, takes it as a message to end her life instead and proceeds to kill herself on air. With suicide being a fashion trend or an issue that is glorified these days, I thought it timely for Lifetime to create a premise such as this one. Writing Quality: Good original story line with incredible twisty turns. A year later and we are faced with these questions: Did the girl actually kill herself? Is she the one leaving threats? Or is someone else behind them? The pool of suspects is large and figuring out who the culprit is proves impossible because the plot is so intricately woven with plenty of red herrings and plausible reasons for everyone in Dr. Jill's circle. Scare Factor: Not too scary, more of a psychological mystery. Threatening messages are the scariest part of the film as we know that they are all leading to a climactic moment. Content (sex, language, & violence): No sex or language. One act of violence is shown on-screen and a bit frightening. Another act of violence zooms in on only a character's reaction to it, a look of shock, and then the body falls to the ground. Overall, mild violence. Values & Themes: Regret over bad choices/the desire to better one's self. Taking responsibility for someone's suicide, even though the person is not at fault. Ending: Very good, but too suddenly ends. Acting: Superb. Georgina Haig as the MC is larger than life, deserving to be on the big silver screen.

By no means a "good movie" by regular standards, in that it is not original, not terribly suspenseful, not especially memorable or compelling. However, for a TV movie, this was very well made. It is shot well, and acted well. So formulaic in its development that you can see coming every single step this movie takes, mostly because there are only breadcrumbs in this movie. This movie does not volunteer any information that does not pertain to the plot, so every sentence makes it evident to the viewer where this is going. This ranks MUCH higher than other TV movies I have seen. Is it silly? Sure. But there are lots of movies I've seen before that I would turn off the TV for, if they came on again. With Radio Silence, if my choices were watch again or turn the TV off, I'd see it again. Make of that what you will, in terms of recommendations.