Jodi Arias: Dirty Little Secret

I felt the made-for-TV movie about Jody Arias was actually very good and was a balanced presentation of a sensational story. Jody Arias is obviously unbalanced, paranoid, has super-low self-esteem, and many other psychological defects. But as the story is shown, it also balances this with Travis Alexander's duplicity. He wanted to maintain the appearance of being a good, pious Mormon but kept Jody Arias as his secret life and kept her out of the mainstream of his life. When he tried to break up several times, he always ended up back in bed with Jody. He certainly did not deserve the terrible thing that happened to him, but he contributed his share. I thought the film was balanced and worth watching.

'Fatal Attraction' is an old story. Few cases have been chronicled, the most well known being Carolyn Warmus in the early 1990's. It too was in the national limelight, she was found guilty of murder, and not one but two movies were made telling the story. But as we know, the Jodi Arias story was more compelling because of the unexpected, lurid details of their deviant personal sanctum. No court case has ever presented to the public what should be rated X. All in all, "Dirty Little Secret" does the best it can do. There were only two people who could tell the real story, but one is dead and the other is a chronic liar. I'm sure there are many who will agree that Jodi Arias is a better actress than the woman who played her in this film. Thus there is no way a film can portray this story with pure accuracy. 'Artistic license' is unavoidable, and why this film struck me as an attempt to stay as close to what the producers knew at the time it was filmed. "Dirty Little Secret" may have its faults, but it's definitely worth seeing.

Oh my goodness this was so cringe and poorly written. The piece feels like a student film and there's no sensitivity or skill to the writing and direction of scenes and how they play. Characters are not individuals, you can hear the same voice from the writers each time. The dialogue sounds so on the nose and cliche. The music plays awfully and feels like it was pulled from a royalty free library and placed carelessly - it sounds like The Bold & The Beautiful. The actors had potential but really needed a competent script and competent director which sadly they had neither. The cinematography isn't terrible, visually it looks passable, but the shot selection is so boring and vanilla. The subject of sexuality isn't treated in a sensitive, appropriate or clever way, feeling more like the writers idealised fantasy. The dialogue is so poor it taints the film with comedy, the bad kind. Sadly, there is no depth or substance here. It feels and plays like a rough 1st Draft of a script that needs some serious polishing, though I'm not sure the filmmakers (Writers and Director) carried the skill or taste to see it through or give it improvement.

I have read some bad reviews of this film and I have to say, after watching the film I was pleasantly surprised.

There are parts of the story that have been altered as Hollywood expects a certain glossy finish to its films. The bulk of the story however remains the same. It is a little like fatal attraction and when you find yourself thinking that you stop for a moment and realise, "hang on, this actually happened".

The story, for anybody who knows about the case, is predictable for its genre but the lead actress Tania Raymonde is not bad in the roll at all. She plays the part of Arias quite well and her little jealous outbursts were that convincing she reminded me of an ex of mine! All in all its not a bad film. The only criticism I would have is they don't spend enough time on the trial. This film however is well worth watching!

This was BRILLIANT. Both actors nailed these parts and they were both very difficult to pull off. But they were utterly convincing and I think this TV movie was smashing. Not at all clichéd and stuck to the facts that I know of the case, having followed it, from London, for the last two years.

Jesse Lee Soffer not only got Travi's charm and obvious boy next door magnetism, but he also successfully reminded us that Travis was a flawed character, certainly sexist, perhaps ambitious at the expense of others, but most of all bound and brainwashed by his particular religious brand of zombieism, Mormonism. Also, it was clear from the show that the two of them had a very very powerful connection that went beyond the physical. Travis liked Jodi for quite a while, and intermittently throughout the saga. We like her too, in this reconstruction. We consider her point of view. At times we are totally on her side even.....until, of course, that fateful, epic, bloody road trip.

Production values are serious and classy and very effective. This is no regular daytime TV true story. This is a highly accomplished piece of work and everyone involved can be very proud of what they achieved. Im looking forward to seeing these two lead actors in other material.

I'm very fussy about I watch and what I enjoy and I give this an unreserved 10/10