A Slight Case of Murder

Co-scripted by William H. Macy from, arguably, Donald E. Westlake's best and hardest to find novel, "A Travesty". *Very* faithful to the story, the movie stars Macy as a hapless man who gets in way too far over his head after attempting to cover up an accidental death. Costars Adam Arkin and James Cromwell in good supporting roles. The strength of the movie is in the intricate twist-after-twist storyline and in the acting, particularly by Macy who routinely and delightfully breaks through the 4th wall here and gets away with it every time. A good storyline with much dark humor, this one engaged me enough that I've watched it three times in the week since it came out. Prepare to shelve your critical faculties and emit a loud, bipartisan "wheeeeee!".

William Macy is perfect in this unique contemporary film noir. The look is 40's although its not really a period piece. The interaction of Adam Arkin and Macy is electric, with multiple cat and mouse games being played.

This movie raises the bar in TV movies, and is an intelligent entertainment with an unguessable ending.

Loved it.

Okay, I love Bill Macy, who's invariably fun to watch, with those pouchy eyes and that "please don't kick me again" expression-- or maybe it's "please don't kick me again so hard." And I love Donald Westlake, one of the best writers of light capers on the scene today. Westlake wrote the novel on which this is based, which I seem to recall reading as "Enough," not "A Travesty," which is what it says in the credits. The combination of these two guys is inspired, all the better in that Macy co-wrote the adaptation and tailored the lead precisely to his acting strengths. Macy just looks like a typical Westlake hero-- only, as one of the other characters points out, he really can't be the hero if he's killed his girlfriend, even accidentally. And he's not really the hero, I guess, although you do sort of root for him. Macy plays Jerry Thorpe, a not-very-nice TV film critic, whose attempts to evade the consequences of committing an accidental murder get more and more involved as the plot thickens. It's an anti-Columbo, where we follow the criminal, not the cop, and wonder when and how he's going to blow it. Macy's stayed true to the book, adding a lot of character touches and a couple of nifty flourishes. He even includes a funny reference to one of his own previous pictures, "Searching for Bobby Fischer." I guess, for me, the fun was just watching Macy have so much fun in a leading role-- like Steve Buscemi, he's a terrific character actor who rarely gets the chance to carry a film. He carries this one, and I hope to see him carry more.

William H. Macy is dealing with "A Slight Case of Murder" as well as with his libido and blackmail in this 1999 TNT movie. The film also stars Felicity Huffman, Adam Arkin, James Cromwell, Julia Campbell, Paul Mazurski, and Vincent Pastore.

Macy plays a film critic and teacher, Terry Thorpe, who accidentally kills his girlfriend and becomes frantic to cover up the crime and hide the body. The matter is complicated by a detective (Cromwell) who saw him at the building and is now attempting to blackmail him. Then Thorpe makes the fatal mistake of getting involved with someone else -- someone else besides his other, alive girlfriend, played by Felicity Huffman.

Using a convention from Columbo, Thorpe works on forming a friendship with the detective assigned to the case, Stapelli (Arkin) - which has interesting consequences.

Macy is the same befuddled wreck that he was in Fargo, but he's smarter and more worldly. He gives a wonderful, wacky performance in a film that is filled with all kinds of humorous dialogue and humorous moments, despite the subject. A fresh twist on the film noir. Recommended.

when I realized that the main character in this movie is the same man (William H. Macy) who provocate all the deaths in FARGO. I said "man, you are a real maniatic". the story has his own way to tell the story.

also the camera takes are fantastic. the first take "going up the building" are awsome, very clever.

I trully recommend this picture, not only because the story, is a great movie if you're a "Movie Classics Lover".