Cries in the Dark (2006) Eva La Rue, Adam Harrington, Gina Chiarelli, Adrian Holmes Movie Review

Cries in the Dark (2009)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Eva La Rue and Adrian Holmes in Cries in the Dark (2006)

The Hand that Stole the Cradle

With her little sister Elle (Camille Sullivan) almost ready to give birth, Detective Carrie Macklin (Eva La Rue) couldn't be happier for her. But that happiness turns to distress when one night Elle goes missing and evidence points the finger of suspicion at a relocated sex offender. But with Elle's husband Scott (Adam Harrington) acting a bit strange and tension running high as Carrie and Elle's mum shows up it becomes more difficult than ever for Carrie.

What makes "Cries in the Dark" so entertaining is the basic storyline and more importantly how it ends up. As such it would be fair to say when it starts it all feels a bit ordinary, with everything about it heavy handed from the strained relationship between Elle and her husband Scott to the creepy Glenn Davies, the sex offender, being a prime suspect when Elle goes missing. Throw in some less that natural acting and in all honesty things are not looking good especially with plenty of cheesy dialogue and unrealistic characters.

Adam Harrington as Scott in Cries in the Dark (2006)

Now things don't immediately get much better because following Elle's disappearance we have the cops including her sister Carrie going after Davies whilst it is made very obvious that he wasn't the one behind Elle's disappearance. It's obvious because of Rosa the "pregnant" woman who Elle meets at the doctors and you would have to be stupid not to realise she was the one behind Elle's disappearance especially when she shows up with a baby and mentioning the baby's mysterious father. It is so obvious that it isn't even worth saying spoiler alert.

All of which sounds like I am saying that "Cries in the Dark" is not good and up to this point it is rather ordinary with Carrie doing her best to track down her pregnant sister. But what makes this better than average is that the story manages to connect the dots as in to how Rosa is connected to Elle. It is still has plot holes but is nicely done and this is where the potential shines through because there has been a touch of ingenuity in creating this story.

Sadly whilst "Cries in the Dark" has potential, and I would love for someone to take this story and fill it out into a big screen movie, the limitations of being a TV movie hold it back. The characters are poorly written, the dialogue is shaky almost as shaky as some of the acting and action which borders on the unrealistic. But in Eva La Rue they do have a good lead, yes she is hot as Carrie but she also gets across the emotion of her character when tragedy strikes. It is because Eva delivers a strong performance that you don't mind that some of the stuff she does as a cop is too Hollywood and not of the real world.

What this all boils down to is that "Cries in the Dark" suffers the same flaws as do so many TV movies with the limitations being highlighted via poor dialogue and gaping plot holes. But unlike other similar thrillers it has the potential to be good and a performance from Eva La Rue which helps lift it to being a pleasant surprise.


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