Past Tense

Tightly-attired widow Paula Trickey (as Kim) jumps out of her bed to comfort screaming 10-year-old daughter Alexia Fast (as Sara). The mature-looking girl has been having nightmarish flashbacks to an incident which killed her police officer father Christopher "Chris" Shay, and a mysterious woman, in the line of duty. Incredibly, young Fast seems to be assuming the identity of the woman murdered alongside detective Shay. Of course, this raises Ms. Trickey's eyebrows. She tries to investigate new facts being revealed by her daughter, but the police are uncooperative and Adrian Hough (as Robert Marquette) can't get the case re-opened. Only detective Michael Rogers (as Matt Carson), who loved Officer Shay like a brother, seems helpful. His more natural characterization also helps this supernatural crime drama. But, while we do discover what happened, the supernatural angle is never quite clear or believable.

**** Past Tense (8/12/06) Penelope Buitenhuis ~ Paula Trickey, Alexia Fast, Michael Rogers, Adrian Hough

Oh, my God! This is so bad! I just can't keep on watching it. Paula Trickey (as the desperate mother) has been looking out of her head astonished exactly the same way for half an hour already, without even moving a single face muscle in a different way.. Besides, it is obvious that the kid in the little girl's role (Alexia Fast) has never ever been seriously frightened in her life so far.. Above all, the benignant black therapist appears.. I can't believe that movies like this are still made. I can't believe that there are still so many austere viewers around the world who last out such producers and filmmakers. Boo! - I'll switch this thing off, immediately!!!

What an absolute load of rubbish. How could anyone sit through this without multitasking: Bridey Murphy meets a youthful Miss Marple? Seriously, do ten year old girls really have visions of murdered women they've never met? The only thing arguably worse than the ludicrous plot is the script.

It's one thing to pander to psychic nonsense, it's another entirely to insult the intelligence of even an American audience with this sort of trash. Paula Trickey is not a bad actress but Meryl Streep and Marlon Brando could not breathe life into this monstrosity. Seriously. This is a TV film made on a limited budget, but even with five times the budget it is doubtful if it could have been made mildly more interesting than the test card.

Seriously, give this one a miss.

A supernatural who-dun-it.

I enjoyed the film and felt that the acting and characters were good.

The story had me guessing as to the outcome. It is a good, basic thriller with no great plot holes.

Some of the red herrings are a bit contrived.

Overall it's worth watching. I liked the way the the hunt was conducted using a combination of mobile phones and clairvoyance.

There are a couple of gruesome bits - not too bad.

If you can accept that using clairvoyance to solve a mystery is not cheating then it's a simple enjoyable film.