Movie Review: Darrow and Darrow - Body of Evidence

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Strong mystery, fun characters

Cons: Usual Hallmark cheese

The Bottom Line:

Wife killed her husband

Or was it an expert frame?

Fun twists in this film

“What Do You Say, Counselor, Feel Like Charging This Windmill?”  “You Know I Love a Good Windmill.”

As Hallmark gears up for their annual Christmas movie spectacular, they appear to be winding down their mystery movies for the year.  I believe that Body of Evidence is the final one of the year (but I'll be checking faithfully in case I'm wrong).  This is the third Darrow and Darrow mystery movie, and once again it was a lot of fun.

It hasn't been that long since we've last checked in with the Darrow clan since both Claire (Kimberly Williams-Paisley) and her mom, Joanna (Wendie Malick) are still in the beginning stages of their relationships with the new men in their lives, Miles (Tom Cavanagh) and Coach (Paul McGillion), respectively.

Miles is currently taking a leave of absence from his job as a prosecutor, and that turns out to be a good thing when Roy (Mitch Ainley) approaches Miles and Claire.  Roy is a rookie police officer, and he was there a year ago when Laura was arrested for murdering her husband, Tom.  In that time, no body has turned up, yet Laura has been tried and convicted of murder.  Roy thinks Laura was unfairly arrested and convicted based on what he saw that day.  Miles and Claire agree to look at the evidence and talk to Laura, and when they do, they reach different conclusions about whether she is guilty or not.  They begin to work together to prove things one way or another.  Who is correct?  Will they find proof either way?

The movies in this series set up impossible cases to be solved.  Yes, there are some holes in the case, so it is easy to see why Claire is doubting things.  Yet I can easily see why the jury would have come back with a guilty verdict.  Yes, I suspected a few of the things that were happening early on, but there were some great twists along the way that surprised me and made me question my conclusions.  The ending was a bit abrupt with Miles and Claire pulling out evidence to make their case that we hadn't heard even discussed before that scene, but their conclusions still made perfect sense given everything we'd seen before.

I was glad to see the growth that Joanna got in this episode.  Her disdain for small town life after living in the City (that's New York City, of course) wore on me a bit in previous films.  I hope that in future movies, she isn't quite as much of a snob.

Having said that, I do love the characters here and how they all interact.  The teasing is wonderful, and I laughed a few times along the way to the climax.

Yes, the film does come with the usual Hallmark cheese warning, although this movie seemed to have a smaller dose than some of the others.  Still, just remember this is a Hallmark movie going in and you'll be fine.

Since we'll have a bit of a break in Hallmark's mystery movies, now is the time to catch up.  You'll certainly enjoy watching Body of Evidence and all the twists and turns it provides.