Vivendo com o Perigo

After watching this movie on tv, I looked it up in the IMDB and imagine to my surprise a user rating of 7.6! This is not a good film. Especially bad is the editing; the poor way the story jumps from one point to another was amateurish and a huge distraction. It's not very fluently done. I do agree that the acting was fairly decent, especially Kelly Kapowski, and that the story was intriguing enough.

This movie is based on the book "Evil Beside Her" by Kathryn Casey. It is the true story of a Texas woman's marriage to a dangerous Psychopath. Most everything in the movie really did happen, although a few small things are fictional (names and some fictional characters etc...)and of course the more graphic things and other details were left out of the script. I myself thought this was a very good movie and Tiffany Amber Thiessen did a great job, as did Eric Close. Casey is a very good crime writer and this book is a good one. I watch this movie every chance I get because I did read the book. Most movies you watch on the Lifetime Movie Network are true stories and a lot of them did not make the news nation wide.

Please correct me if I'm wrong. Doesn't it make sense that the police should have issued and executed a search warrant after the suspicions from California and the report from Jennifer? It was weird to expect Jennifer to find the evidence!!! Why didn't they perform DNA checks? I know this movie is older but weren't they using it back then? It's unrealistic to believe Jennifer had to put her own life in jeopardy to catch him. They should have at least had the man under surveillance.. I don't believe I would have put myself in that kind of danger. Maybe I watch too many crime TV shows, but this just seemed unrealistic.

At a picnic, exceptionally beautiful Tiffani Amber Thiessen (as Jennifer "Jen" Moore) meets exceptionally handsome Eric Close (as Chris Gallagher). He wants to go out with Ms. Thiessen, but she's not dating. Encouraged by fatherly friend Gerald McRaney (as Dave Morgan), Thiessen changes her mind quickly. Their first sexual encounter doesn't work out very well. Thiessen lets Mr. Close know she was raped two years ago. Close seems very understanding. He proposes and she accepts. They are an exceptionally beautiful and handsome couple. But, if you didn't catch the foreshadowing, there is trouble a-brewing...

The community is shocked by a "Peeping Tom" and Close becomes a prime suspect. Thiessen defends her husband. Things get more serious when a serial rapist starts sneaking around. Thiessen begins to wonder if Close might be "The Stranger Beside Me". This is supposed to be based on a true story. It doesn't impress as very realistic, but writer Bruce Miller and director Sandor Stern were probably not focused on realism. This TV movie is more about chests than rape, and the co-stars certainly have nice ones. Since he's a guy, the camera are more generous in showing Close's chest. Thiessen is way too pretty for her part.

***** The Stranger Beside Me (9/17/95) Sandor Stern ~ Tiffani Thiessen, Eric Close, Gerald McRaney, Steven Eckholdt

When I saw the preview for this movie, I figured to myself, "here's another dumb TV movie that's written with the thought and complexity of a soap opera," but when I saw it I was surprised. Tiffany-Amber Thiessen stars (and proves that she can indeed act if given the chance) as a woman who falls in love with and marries a man (Now and Again's Eric Close) but begins to lose trust in him when a series of rapes begin to take place in her community. At first, she is blinded by his assurances that he is innocent and her love for him, but as time passes she continues to be suspicious of him.

While this sounds like the set-up for another boring melodramatic TV-movie, it is really much better than that, because the characters are well-acted by Thiessen and Close, and the movie's script allows them to be much more complicated and intelligent than you'd expect; these aren't just caricatures or cardboard characters that exist only to move the plot along but real, three-dimensional people, and we find ourselves really caring about them. And the movie is smart enough that it is able to provide an exciting, involving climax to the story without resorting to dumb action scenes, mindless cliches or cheap melodrama. Instead we share in the main character's inner conflicts and fears, and are given a realistic portrayal of how she might be able to resolve them and do the right thing.

If you get a chance to give this one a look, please do so. It's production values are not exactly top-notch (it is a TV movie, after all), but if you can look past that, there is an excellent story to enjoy.