DEATH BENEFIT
US, 1996, 85 minutes, Colour.
Peter Horton, Carrie Snodgress, Wendy Makkenna, Kenny Johnson.
Directed by Mark Piznarski.
Death Benefit is an interesting crime drama, based on a true story. It focuses on a corporate lawyer, Peter Horton, who is approached in church by a teacher whose daughter has died in a cliff accident. What opens up is a story of madness and violence. Carrie Snodgress is the mad woman who has murdered her daughter, is a serial arsonist, gets insurance and then murders people. It is a tour de force performance by Carrie Snodgress to persuade us that this character is real - is a consummate liar and stands unmovable when sentence is passed.
The film shows the zeal of the lawyer, even at the risk of alienation from his girlfriend as well as from his son. His perseverance wins the case.
1. The credibility of the film based on a true story? Characters, police work, investigation?
2. The title and its reference to the insurance policy, the signatories?
3. The Kentucky locations, the Californian, San Diego and Monterey locations? Authentic atmosphere? Musical score?
4. The prologue and the girl falling from the cliff? Audience attention, puzzle?
5. Steve Keeny and his son, church, with Wynn? Mrs Wilkins approaching, his listening? Inviting her to come to the office, his forgoing his lunch invitation to listen to her? The phone calls, the puzzle, the police? His beginning the investigations, the autopsy information, the photos and the information about the victim's hands? Finding out about the policies, the signatories? His further investigations, going to California, meeting Virginia McGinnis?, her taking him to be a real estate man? His growing sense of frustration, the refusal of the Monterey police to act? His relationship with his son, talking on the phone rather than playing ball with him? His relationship with his girlfriend, love, preoccupation, the restaurant and his not paying attention? Her moving away? The secretary and her assistance, finding Virginia McGinnis's husband, going to interview him, the story of his marriage to her, the fires, her daughter, the two sons? His agreeing to testify and then killing himself? The build-up to the truth about Virginia McGinnis? Going to San Diego, the Police Chief, the arrest of one of the sons, his boasting about the money? The District Attorney, her work and investigation, opening the mental information about Virginia McGinnis's husband (with the information about his fears that she was threatening to kill him)? The judge, the further information? Going to the scene of the crime, especially after the sequence of events with the photos? The hearing, the reconstruction of the crime, the guilty verdict? His being together with his son? Achieving his ambition, alienated from corporate legal firms, his own business?
6. Virginia McGinnis?, her madness, killing her daughter, the fires, her sons? Their being in jail? Her marriage? Killing her husband? Taking in Melissa, the tour, the insurance policy, killing her the next day? Taking the photos? Careful with money, continual liar? The confrontation with Steve, her greediness about the house? Her taunting others, the phone call with Mrs Wilkins and her coldness? The care of her husband? The arrest, the hearing, her hard stance with the verdict?
7. Mrs Wilkins, teacher, needing help, the approach to Steve, the phone call to Virginia, persevering with the case, vindicated?
8. Wynn, in love with Steve, the relationship, her feeling ousted, the tension in the restaurant scene? The son, playing ball, his father on the phone, the antagonism between the two, his father explaining the sense of justice, Wynn worried about the boy's callous attitude to crime, the reconciliation?
9. Virginia's husband, leaving her, alienated, in fear, telling the truth, killing himself?
10. The police, the hesitancy of the Monterey police? Insurance investigators? The contrast with San Diego? The DA and her giving herself to the court case - and winning?
