Movie Review: At First Sight - A Mystery Woman Mystery

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Interesting mystery and good characters

Cons: Hallmark’s usual cheese

The Bottom Line:

Hunting for her mom

Can Sam clear her of murder?

Fun myst’ry for fans

“I Called So I Wouldn’t Do Anything Stupid, but Since You’re Not There, Here Goes.”

Since I jump in part way through the Mystery Woman movie franchise, I know I’ll be playing catch up on the characters, their backstories, and their relationships.  However, sometimes they have revelations that even surprise the rest of the characters.  That was the case with At First Sight.

Samantha (Kellie Martin) has just started dating her optometrist, Ben (Eyal Podell).  When she filled out her medical history for him, she lied about it since she doesn’t know her family history.  It turns out she was adopted, something she’s never told anyone else.  Heck, even her parents don’t know she knows.  Still, she feels badly about having lied, so she sets out to learn the truth about her family to set the record straight.

Her search takes her up to Whiptail in Northern California, where her birth mother is living.  However, when she tracks the woman down, Samantha finds her standing over a dead body.  She insists that she didn’t kill him, but the police think differently, especially since she lied about knowing who the victim is.  Can Samantha help this woman she doesn’t even know?

Worried that we won’t see the other regulars from the franchise?  While Samantha consults with Cassie (Nina Siemaszko) about the case, Philby (Clarence Williams III) has a face from his past show up.

Naturally, the plot hooked me right away.  And, since Samantha didn’t know anyone involved, that made it more difficult for her to figure things out.  Especially since she was trying not to reveal her connection to the case accidentally.  There were some good twists along the way, and I wasn’t sure where it was going until the end.

We spend a lot of time with characters that are new to the franchise.  Honestly, since I’m fairly new to it as well, that worked perfectly for me.  I liked them, which helped draw me into the story.

As a Diagnosis: Murder fan, I got a kick out of seeing Charlie Schlatter show up in a supporting role.

I’ll admit, I’m not the biggest fan of Kellie Martin’s acting.  I felt the rest of the cast did better than she did here.  Having said that, everyone suffered from the Hallmark cheese factor to some extent.

As a fun bit of trivia, not only did Kellie Martin star in this movie, but she directed it as well.

At First Sight’s interesting premise hooked me and kept me engaged.  At some point, I do hope I can see the first few movies in the franchise, but until that happens, I’ll keep enjoying the ones Hallmark is willing to replay.