Hard to Forget (1998) starring Polly Shannon, Tim Dutton, Nicholas Campbell, Michael McManus Movie Review

Hard to Forget (1998)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Polly Shannon in Hard to Forget (1998)

Anything But Hard to Forget

After an explosion on a boat reportedly killed heiress Nicky Applewhite (Polly Shannon - No Greater Love) her distraught mother Helen (Lois Maxwell) hires private detective Max Warner (Tim Dutton - A Risk Worth Taking) and his business partner Doug Hart (Nicholas Campbell) to investigate as she is convinced Nicky is still alive especially as Nicky's fiance John Gilman (Michael McManus) miraculously survived the explosion. But for a year and a half they get nowhere other than for Max to become obsessed with the beautiful Nicky much to the annoyance of Doug. Then one day when Max sees a tourist poster for South Africa he is convinced it is Nicky in the picture and flies out there to check it out for himself. There he meets Sandra (Polly Shannon), a safari guide who he finds himself falling in love with whilst keeping secret whaht he is up to. And that puts himself in a sticky situation when Doug and Helen fly out there.

I have to mention one of Hollywood's classic movies when talking about "Hard to Forget" as with the whole set up of a detective obsessed with a dead woman makes it sound similar to "Laura". But it isn't that similar, in truth it is very different although different is not actually a good thing in this case as it is in fact a stereotypical mid 90s romantic, murder, mystery with a melodramatic edge. It is the sort of movie which is a little cheesy when it comes to the romance side, the sort of romance you find in some chick-lit novels.

But having said all that "Hard to Forget" is also incredibly easy to watch as we have a reasonable slice of mystery connected to the romance which of course with Max pretending to be someone else is on a shaky footing immediately. Plus we end up in Africa and on a wild life reserve which is a lot more beautiful than yet another one of these movies being set in American in a city or on the beach. And to add to the look there is also Polly Shannon who quite simply is breathtakingly beautiful in this movie. In fairness Shannon along with Dutton also play their parts reasonably well but this is very much a visual movie right down the breathtaking sunsets and scenes of wildlife in their natural habitat.

What this all boils down to is that "Hard to Forget" is in fact anything but hard to forget as it is only a typical romantic, murder, mystery from the 90s made for a TV audience who prefer melodrama over realism. But like other similar movies it is well paced and has the look which sucks you in more than the actual story.


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