aurion7

I doubt that this case would ever have gone to trial. The only "witness" supposedly saw the suspect during a dark night, through heavy rain, from a couple of hundred feet away, right? If this case did make it to the courtroom, any halfway decent defense attorney would've knocked down the supposed validity of that witness without much trouble. There's nothing else to go on. The suspect followed her? How far? No one knows, which means that's of no value at all. If she was hit by a car, any autopsy would have shown this to have been the case, i.e. She was hit hard by a very large object... in other words, a vehicle, rather than a hand-held object. In summary, the direction, the actors and the production are all fine, but the whole film is a house built on a foundation that has no strength.

Shirley Knight was a fine actress and she inhabits the role comfortably here, portraying a range of emotions and characteristics smoothly. The rest of the actors are well cast and are very believable. The story's simple but makes a lot of sense in a world where older folks often feel marginalized and struggle to believe they're maintaining lives of meaning. Here's my one, huge complaint. You don't have to be a genius to not walk in the direction of the traffic on rural roads. Vehicles are approaching from behind - in other words, you can't see what's coming - at high rates of speed. You can be killed in an instant by someone who's texting, otherwise distracted or impaired. The NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) website states, "If there is no sidewalk, walk facing traffic and as far from traffic as possible." How many people were involved in the production of this film which promotes a highly stupid and dangerous practice?

What were people expecting in order for this to have a 5.5 aggregated score? It's not a brilliant classic, but first of all, it's hard to beat a cast like this, with Kevin Kline, Alan Rickman, Susan Sarandon, Harvey Keitel, Rod Steiger, etc. The story moves along well, without any clumsy directing or editing, and the solution to the mystery is not easily figured out. The variety of characters involved have enough depth to make them interesting, and the cast portrays them well. Add some subtle humor here and there and you get a film that's fun to watch, and I think it'll leave you with a smile, unless you're determined to be unnecessarily critical.