Movie Review: CrimeTime - Freefall

Stars: 3 out of 5

Pros: Plenty of fun moments with good characters

Cons: Mystery could have been stronger; too many over the top characters

The Bottom Line:

Actress detective

Mystery could be stronger

But plenty of fun

“Seeing as How it Seems I Volunteered to Play Detective, I’m Going to the Last Place Sam was Seen Alive.  I Am Not Doing It in Heels.”

Hallmark is busy pumping out new mystery movies again.  Who knows which will turn into franchises for them.  (I’ve given up on getting new installments on a couple of the ones they introduced in recent years.)  CrimeTime is the newest potential franchise, and it got off to a fun start with Freefall.

Actress Hadley Warner (Lyndie Greenwood) has spent the last ten years playing a detective on the TV show CrimeTime.  But audience tastes have changed, and her show has been canceled.  With no immediate job prospects, she packs up her two teenage kids and moves to a small town in Colorado to be close to her mom.

They haven’t even moved in yet when Hadley learns about a local missing man.  However, she doesn’t expect to find his body in her new backyard one morning.  His body is in a tree, attached to a parachute.  But he’s been shot.  When the man’s distraught mother asks Hadley to find out what happened, she can’t say no.  While her investigation annoys Detective Shawn Caden (Luke Macfarlane), she begins to pick up clues.  Can she figure out what really happened?

Even with all the mysteries I read and watch, I am still often fooled.  I’m actually better at spotting the victim early on than I am the killer.  (Let’s not discuss what that says about me.)  In this case, I spotting the killer fairly early on.  Don’t get me wrong, all the suspects were good, and I definitely didn’t have motive until the end.  But I would have liked a little stronger mystery.

The characters were fun, but they were also a bit much.  While some of them were grounded, most noticeably the police, several of them were over the top.  Individually, that can be fun.  But if they were in the same scene together, it was too much.  Hadley is one of the over the top characters, and I enjoyed her when she was off on her own.

And this isn’t a reflection on the actors.  They were all great at bringing the characters to life.  It was the choices with the direction and writing.

All of this said, I did like the team Hadley built to help with the investigation.  There were some great lines, and the two leads have great chemistry.  And I loved the comparisons between real life and TV cop life.

There’s certainly potential in the CrimeTime franchise.  I enjoyed Freefall enough that I will be back if they make another one.  If you enjoy Hallmark mystery movies, I think you’ll enjoy this one, too.