Gone But Not Forgotten (2005)

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This two-part television film was based on a Phillip Margolin novel, which has been deemed "better than this movie" in almost every film review I read.

In New York state, Peter Lake's (Scott Glenn) wife and young daughter are murdered in a very jumbled opening half hour to the film. Fast forward ten years later, and Lake is now known as Martin Darius, a millionaire developer in Sacramento. Copycat crimes to the New York slayings pop up again, and women's rights lawyer Betsy (Brooke Shields) is now Darius' defense attorney, up against prosecutor Alan (Lou Diamond Phillips). What follows is a two hour thriller dragged out to almost three hours as women are kidnapped and killed, and THIS time, Darius swears he's innocent.

The film takes the old adage "show, don't tell" and turns it on its head. A good hour of screen time, and many characters, could have been dropped by telling, and NOT showing. Darius is already evil enough but when one character recalls his assault of her, do we really need to see it, too? Lake's wife and daughter are shown being murdered twice, in case we didn't remember it happening the first time around. The name cast tries, Phillips and Glenn come off best (although Phillips delivers more lines into a cell phone than to a live character), but the plot lurches along without a steady pace or suspense. Henner and Shields try, but they're both in over their heads. Watch for the scene at a New York suspect's house- I swear Henner tries an accent out of nowhere, and it never occurs again. The film is so padded, I forgot Morton and Atherton were in this until the second half of the film. I'm not sure the novel is as silly as the plot, and don't look up the film's credits online or else a big plot twist will be ruined. The novel's plot might make for a challenging screenwriting exercise. This should have been tightened up, recast, and written with two strong female leads instead of what we get- a semi-edgy basic cable "event."

I'll gladly forget "Gone But Not Forgotten."

Stats:
(2005) 172 min. (* 1/2) out of five stars
-Directed by Armand Mastroianni
-Teleplay by Steven H. Berman based on the novel by Phillip Margolin
-Cast: Brooke Shields, Lou Diamond Phillips, Scott Glenn, Marilu Henner, Robin Riker, William Atherton, Joe Morton, Leigh McCloskey, Jon Polito, John Mese, John Prosky, Joel McKinnon Miller, Charlie Finn
(Not Rated)