Movie Review: A Will to Kill - A Hailey Dean Mystery

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Strong mystery ends plot line well

Cons: Mild dose of cheese

The Bottom Line:

Hailey faces past

Wraps up major mystery

Fans won’t want to miss

The Answers About Will

When we first met Hailey Dean in the Hallmark movie franchise, we learned about her murdered fiancé Will and how his death had impacted her life.  We’ve gotten hints about what happened all those years ago over the movies that followed, but when I heard that A Will to Kill would be focusing on his murder, I knew we’d get answers.

Hailey Dean (Kelly Martin) is finally ready to go back and reopen the cold case investigation into Will’s death.  Oh, it’s been investigated over the years, but they’ve hit dead ends.  Hailey is hoping that her emotion state might help her dig up something she didn’t remember from that time.

Looking through a box of mementos from that time in her life, she realizes she’s lost touch with one of her friends from college.  In fact, no one has heard from her in all those years.  Could she be the key to what happened all those years ago?  Where is she?  And was Hailey really the target?

This movie is definitely worthy of this major mystery in Hailey’s life.  There are plenty of twists and turns.  I went into the movie with a theory, and I got so caught up in the action I rather forgot my theory.  Yes, fans will be satisfied with the outcome as well.

The mystery was such a focus of the movie that there wasn’t much time for supporting players or sub-plots.  Yes, Fincher (Viv Leacock) gets one involving his new girlfriend, but that’s about it.  I’m a bit surprised we didn’t see Hailey’s family at all considering how personal this case was, but I didn’t even think about it when I was watching.  That’s how caught up in the case I truly was.

Not only is the case personal for Hailey, but it’s also person for Danny (Giacomo Baessato), Will’s younger brother who became a cop as a result of Will’s death.  While the movie does focus on Hailey and her reaction to everything, Danny gets a few moments to shine as he also deals with all of this.

Maybe it was because everything was so focused, I felt the cheese factor was lower than normal in this movie.  It was definitely the best of the three we’ve seen this month.  Oh, it’s still there, but it’s mild.

Fans of these movies will be happy to finally have this mystery from the past solved in A Will to Kill.  I’m curious to see where the character will go from here.