La legge dell'inganno

This film begins with 3 men breaking into a house at night and then proceeding to murder a man and his wife in a very sadistic manner. Immediately afterward, one of the men then turns on the other two and kills them as well before setting fire to the house and leaving. What the man doesn't realize is that a young boy has observed all of this from the stairway leading up to his room. The scene then shifts to 20 years later with a young man named "Evan Moreno" (C. Thomas Howell) studying hard to earn a law degree from the University of Miami. Yet, although his grades place him in the top of his class, things change when he meets an attractive woman named "Elise Talbot" (Amber Smith) who inadvertently distracts him from his studies. Not only that, but it also appears that Elise has a secret agenda which will eventually create difficulties for not just the two of them--but for the person who murdered his parents as well. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this film had the potential to be a decent crime-drama as it had a good plot and both Amber Smith and James Russo (as "Gino Carlucci") played their roles quite well. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same for C. Thomas Howell as he simply didn't fit the part. That being said, while certainly not a bad film necessarily, I wasn't terribly impressed with it and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly below average.