Past Malice: An Emma Fielding Mystery

Courtney Thorne Smith's acting is as stiff as her face! She may be convinced Botox works, but her face has become as stiff as a cardboard mask, from decades of injections!!!

This film was weak & flimsy. We only watched it to lull us off to sleep, and guess what? It really worked! Slept like a log after it ended!

This storyline doesn't work; too vapid & lightweight!

An eccentric millionaire dies and two years later his estate is still being appraised. One of the appraisers is Courtney Thorne-Smith archeologist who is doing her second Emma Fielding story Past Malice.

The deceased has also amassed a lot of collectible antiques and he wasn't too discriminating about seeing what they might be worth. For example Professor Fielding has to tell his nephew that he does not have an original Mayflower Compact copy. None purportedly exists though if one were ever found I daresay it would be worth more than the rest of the estate combined.

There's also a legendary curse on the family and the death of the family butler and keeper of all the secrets and an eccentric and iconoclastic archaeological colleague of Fielding's seems to lend credence.

I can safely say that these people met their demises at the hands of a real criminal with a most earthly motive. Which Courtney Thorne-Smith and her companion FBI agent James Tupper do uncover.

Emma Fielding is a nice entry in that collection of feminine detectives for the millenial generation that Hallmark has produced.

I love these Agatha Christie "Who done it" movies!

Really wanted to like this series but this particular episode is pretty bad. Almost turned it off. In particular one of the male leads comes up with this fake accent that is painful to listen to. The writing is quite blase' which is why the actors seem to be just phoning it in for most of the movie. Probably not relevant but Courtney Thorne-Smith doesn't look healthy which is troublesome to those of us who are fans of her past work.

Celebrated archaeologist Emma Fielding (Courtney Thorne-Smith) is recruited by her former roommate to investigate missing artifacts from a mansion with a supposed cursed history. The mystery deepens when she spots a dead body in a hidden chamber with no obvious entrance. FBI Special Agent Jim Connor (James Tupper) leads the murder case.

It's been a little while since I've seen Courtney Thorne-Smith. The mystery at the mansion reminds me of Scooby Doo. Early on, I was half expecting the ripping-off-the-mask reveal. This may be fine for Hallmark but it's a little too light for a big boy movie. There is next to no tension. There is enough likeability but not much else. This needs to be saved by the romantic chemistry but there is limited heat. It's like a lower level pilot for a second tier TV show. They really need a good hot coupling at the top.