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Monday, March 13, 2023

Movie Review: Nikki and Nora - Sister Sleuths

Stars: 3 out of 5
Pros: Interesting mystery and backstory
Cons: Acting could have been better
The Bottom Line:
Strange inheritance
Followed quickly by murder
Could start a franchise


“I Spent Three Years Studying Law.”  “Great!  You Could Tell Us What Laws We’re Breaking.”

Despite regularly watching for new Hallmark mystery movies, I somehow missed Nikki and Nora: Sister Sleuths when it premiered late last year.  And it’s taken me until now to catch a rebroadcast of it.

Nikki (Hunter King) and Nora (Rhiannon Fish) are fraternal twins, but after a tragedy in their past, they haven’t seen each other in a decade.  Nikki has pursued a career in acting, with mixed results, while Nora has become a lawyer at a firm in their native Chicago.

Nikki has recently moved back to the city, but she hasn’t reached out to Nora until she is approached about a surprise inheritance from someone named Charles Porter.  Charles has left her everything, including his detective agency.  Just one catch, he’s left it to both Nikki AND Nora.

Since Nikki desperately needs the money, she approaches Nora, but their reunion doesn’t go well.  However, murder complicates their reunion when they find Nora’s mentor at her law firm dead in his living room.  The police are quick to rule it a suicide, but Nora insists something else was going on.  Will they figure out what happened?

Obviously, with that amount of set up, they are hoping to turn this into a new franchise.  I mean, there’s a lot of backstory.  I was able to view it through that lens, and as a result, I enjoyed it.  Yes, this backstory is fairly predictable, but the execution is fine.  And with how the movie ended, I’m definitely curious to see where the story is going to go.

It helps that the mystery doesn’t take super long to get going, and we have some decent surprises along the way to the ending.  I am conflicted a little on the ending, but that’s all I will say about it.

My biggest issue with the film was the acting.  Yes, I hold Hallmark movies to a different standard than other movies I watch, but even by that standard, I felt like this one needed a step up in the acting department.  Or maybe it was the directing since this issue inflicted the cast pretty much equally.  And no, I don’t feel like it was the writing in this case.

Yes, this movie is clearly paying homage to The Thin Man with some of the character names.  And yes, the characters do acknowledge that at one point in a fun way.

Fans looking for a new Hallmark mystery movie will want to catch Nikki and Nora: Sister Sleuths.

3 comments:

  1. Hmmm, that's interesting that the acting was not up to par across the board.

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  2. I've missed this one as well. I love Hallmark mysteries and do usually give them a decent amount of grace but sometimes the acting can be really bad!

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  3. I think I need to go back and watch this one because I don't even remember how it ended. Lol. Now you have me wondering. I do remember that I liked it, though. I hope it does become a series. :-)

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