Fe ciega

I found this movie to be well acted and directed.It was a drama that left me feeling a little puzzled.What happened to a marriage that seemed so happy and solid at the beginning of the movie?When the story skips ahead two years,something has happened to Rob's marriage that has made him unhappy with Maria.He's now obsessed with Felice.Obsession is probably too weak of a word.He acts like his very existence depends upon Felice's love for him.There's really no explanation as to what has made Rob stop loving his wife except a small inference to a better physical relationship with Felice. What happened emotionally to change Rob's love for Maria?What made him seek out another woman?I guess we'll never know unless the answer is in the book which I admit I haven't read.The late Robert Urich's acting is good in this movie.One change I would have made in Rob's character is more discretion.He comes out and pretty much let's everyone know,including his three sons that he's been having an affair with Felice.He doesn't seem to care what anyone else thinks.He wants to move her in the house right away. This is soon after the death of his wife.He doesn't show a trace of sadness over the death of the mother of his three boys.Why doesn't he at least have the sense to know that his cold behavior may look a little suspicious not only to his sons and family members but also the police who are investigating the murder.If I had been Rob, I would have at least pretended to be grief stricken even if I didn't feel any grief.Doesn't he realize how this insensitivity might be interpreted by others.To me he's sort of saying "I'm glad she's gone". This behavior opens the possibility that he may have some involvement in her murder.The relationship that the three brothers have in this movie is moving.These brothers really do love each other and are not ashamed to show it.Jay Underwood does a super job as Chris and Johnny Galecki is appealing also.The actor who plays Roby,David Barry Gray is outstanding.I cannot praise this actor enough.I found my attention to be focused on him throughout most of the movie. His acting is so good that you don't realize he's acting.He's totally believable and living the part of his character.He comes close to stealing the movie in my mind.He is not afraid or ashamed to let his emotions be seen by anyone.This trait is important in an actor.It makes his performance more believable.I noticed in the internet movie database that he hasn't acted in any movies for a few years.This is a big mistake on someone's part.David Barry Gray needs to be cast in another movie soon.I know I would watch anything this talented actor appears in.

This is a well-acted and absorbing drama, with appealing and talented actors. The piano soundtrack by Laurence Rosenthal was absolutely beautiful -- poignant and evocative. Robert Urich was very good as the weak and self-absorbed husband, and everybody in the movie was watchable, really. To me, the most tragic thing about the aftermath of Maria Marshall's murder was that her sons couldn't even look back on happy memories for comfort. In one scene, the boys are watching some old home movies of their parents and themselves when they were just toddlers. Their mother is laughing and playing with them in the swimming pool, while the father is roughhousing with them and laughing into the camera. But these sweet scenes are fractured by the knowledge that the mother they loved so much was murdered by their father, and they can no longer watch them with a normal feeling of nostalgia, or look back in sentimental memory at their family life.

Actually, I found this movie to be very good. Granted, it was long but on a snowy Saturday afternoon it was very entertaining. I say this because I think the acting was excellent. Robert Urich did a fantastic job as the self-centered father. The casting for all the characters was also very good It was intriguing how the whole story unfolded and kept me very interested. Also, I thought it was very important to show how the mother's death (and their father's possible involvement)effected the sons. It is one thing to deal with the death of your mother but to then have your father implicated in her death was done meticulously. The interaction among the three brothers was very interesting. I would definitely recommend this movie.

When I was in ninth grade (1997-98), my spanish teacher told us about an incident in Bass River, New Jersey, in which a man set up the murder of his wife while en route to their home in Toms River, NJ after visiting Atlantic City. The man was having an affair with the Assistant Principal of a high school, and he arranged with her to make the killing of his wife possible. Now, I'll tell you how local this story really is. My former high school (graduated in 2001), Pinelands Regional High School, was where this principal worked. In 1984, she was arrested on school grounds for the killing of her lover's wife. Bass River Twp. (Burlington Co. border)is less than a mile from my house (southwest Ocean Co.), and I know the campground where she was killed (Bass River State Park). My Spanish teacher witnessed this woman getting arrested at my old school. The thing is, they changed the name of the school to protect it.

I just saw this movie on Sunday, and I realized how eerily local it was. The family lives in an affluent section of Toms River (I think North TR is the most affluent), and Robert Marshall is accused of having a hand in killing his wife, Maria. The movie is about the aftermath, and what the three Marshall boys, Chris, Robbie, and John Marshall go through.

What really amazes me is that this film is as local as it gets. I live about 35-40 minutes from Toms River, but I was only 2 when this incident happened, and not living in the area (I moved to Ocean County in 1985). The fact that this was centered around a principal at my own school was unbelievable, and the fact that my teacher told the story is beyond words.

While this movie was a typical movie of the week, the acting was decent, and the story was played out well. This was a famous story at my school, and I'm glad I knew about it before I saw this. If you catch this on Lifetime, I highly recommend it, especially to south Jerseyans like me, as it is local, and everyone knows almost nothing happens in south Jersey.

I voted this 7/10 because I like made for TV true crime movies, but it has its flaws.

It's about the murder of Maria Marshall (Joanna Kerns) in 1984 at a rest stop along the Garden State Parkway in New Jersey where her husband, Rob Marshall (Robert Urich), has stopped to examine a tire that he thinks is going flat. He is hit in the head by an assailant. She is shot in the back. The motive appears to be robbery though nothing was taken.

I just rewatched "Echoes In the Darkness", and that true crime film was by far the better made and more suspenseful film with much smarter villains. I don't really blame the production that much as the widowed husband is beyond goofy and stupid. You can only do so much with a true crime film if you have an uninspiring villain. After his wife is murdered, all Rob Marshall can talk about is Felice Richmond (Robin Strasser) with whom he was having an affair and was planning to marry after he left his wife. He seems to openly pine away for Felice MUCH more than he is mourning his wife, which makes him unlikeable to his friends and alienates his grown sons. Then there is the 1.5 million dollars in life insurance he just recently took out on his wife and his own mounting money problems. 1.5 million dollars would be about five million dollars in 2025. Complications and suspicions ensue.

The movie tries to drag out the proceedings longer than needed. There is an entire scene about the Marshall's 20th wedding anniversary, two years before the murder, that makes the family and the marriage seem quite happy. Was this the true state of things, or was this just a mirage? It's never clearly stated.

Then there is just the overall rather weird tone of the film. The first half of the film takes on an oddly spiritual tone while overdoing the deifying of the victim.

There's lots of acting talent on the screen, including an early performance by Johnny Galecki of Roseanne and Big Bang Theory fame. Dennis Farina takes on an unusual straight-arrow role as the prosecutor.

If you like true crime I think you'll like this, but you may have the same small complaints about the production that I had.