MARY HIGGINS CLARK'S ALL AROUND THE TOWN
Canada, 2002, 95 minutes. Colour.
Nastassja Kinski, Kim Schraner, Andrea Roth, Michael Shanks, Ellen Dubin, Tobias Moretti.
Directed by Paolo Barzman.
All Around the Town is yet another of Mary Higgins Clark’s murder mysteries that have been filmed. There were quite a number of them during the first decade of the 21st century.
Generally they are easy murder mysteries, generally PG-rated (though this one has a multiple personality issue). The main focus of the film is on Kim Schraner as a young woman who was abducted for two years when she was a little girl, was affected by the experience though seems normal enough. However, when she is put under pressure, several personalities emerge, various facets of how she dealt with the abduction. In the meantime, one of the personalities is making a play for an English lecturer, who is married to Nastassja Kinski. When he is murdered, the young woman is under suspicion. However, her sister (Andrea Roth) is a prosecutor and takes up her sister’s case. She has also persuaded her sister to see a psychiatrist, played by Michael Shanks.
It becomes fairly evident that Nastassja Kinski is the villain – though there are various twists in trying to solve the mystery, especially when the abductors turn up, pretend to be buying the house, want to test whether the girl remembers her past, plant the knife and other factors which disturb her.
Not the best of Mary Higgins Clark’s stories, but a satisfactory entertainment.
1. The popularity of murder mysteries? Mary Higgins Clark and her writing? Her characters?
2. The television movie, the glossy style? The locations, homes, universities, police precincts, psychiatrists? Plausible? The musical score?
3. The title, the fact that the abductor used to sing the song? Its haunting the young woman?
4. The family, the two sisters, Laurie at four, Karen looking after her, Laurie going out, the abduction, Karen on the phone? Her distress? The years passing, the parents killed in a car accident?
5. The character of Laurie, the effect of the abduction? Her studies? Her seeming normal? At home, her roommate? The manifestation of another personality in relationship to the lecturer? The vampish style? Real behaviour, in her dreams? Her flirting? Under suspicion?
6. Karen, her work in prosecution, competent woman? Concerned about her sister? Her going to see Justin Donnelly? Persuading him to take on her sister? Persuading Laurie?
7. The interviews with the doctor, her acceptance of having various personalities? The doctor and his shrewdness in picking which personality was speaking? Debbie as the little girl, Leona as the vamp? The protective personality Kate? The final arrival of Lee? The clue to the mystery? Laurie and her memories, her pet chicken, the abductors and their dominance, cruelty? Letting her go?
8. The abductors and their turning up again? At the funeral, Laurie’s collapse, Bic pretending to be a doctor? Carla and her caution? The scenes where they were looking over the house? The issue of the knife, the photo, the dead chicken? Bic and Carla trying to restrain him? His continued daring? His building himself up as an expert, the book, the fans?
9. The build-up to the murder? Karen, her relationship with her husband, the distance between them, her love for him? His relationship with the woman on staff, the woman admitting the truth? Karen and her going to the airport, her alibi? Returning, seeing the knife, killing her husband? Her being trapped by refilling the car with petrol? Interrogation, breakdown?
10. The solving of the mystery? Laurie becoming normal – there being no need for the manifestations of the personalities? Sarah and her relationship with the psychiatrist? The neat and tidy ending?
