Pretend You Don't See Her

Really odd TV-movie from the Mary Higgins Clark plot factory. Oddball international cast does pretty well (for the most part); I don't know if the use of British, Canadian, German, and American actors was a deliberate sop to the multi-culti crowd or just a random occurrence. Anyway, the mystery is quite suspenseful at times, though some of the "twists and turns" are a bit pat. The overall impact is hindered, however, by Emma Samms's strange performance. She was apparently struggling with her American accent: some of her line readings are a bit off, and she uses an inappropriately breathy voice in some scenes that really saps them of tension. There was no intrinsic reason for her to use an American accent anyway; the character could just as easily have been a Brit. Also inexplicable is the (creepy) attention paid below to the little girl--her role is actually small.