[.ca] Mary Higgins Clark: Pretend You Don't See Her

Best of the Bunch:
"Pretend You Don't See Her" is the best of the Mary Higgins Clark Mystery Movie adaptations. The openings are great fun -- with a rolling pastiche of "Red Shoe Diaries" cum mystery images (hee hee) and a glittering skyline, which sadly was missing from the latest installment in the series. In this film, Emma Samms plays a real estate agent who becomes embroiled in a murder mystery when her client's daughter is run over by a car and her client confides in her her belief that it was murder; then Samms ends up unwittingly witnessing the murder of the client and being entrusted with one of the biggest clues to the mystery -- the daughter's bloody journal pages. As a result, she is thrown into the witness protection program and is at great peril as the killer searches to find her. She also determines to get to the bottom of the mystery. Samms gives a good performance in the lead, and the whole production is engaging and absorbing. There are plenty of red herrings, a good narrative, great pacing, and delicious close calls. I haven't read any of the Mary Higgins Clark novels, so I can't compare movie to book, but as a viewing experience, this one holds up well. It really is the best of the lot, thus far, and far ahead of the pack at that. I've watched it several times. (Next best in the series is "Lucky Day.") Highly recommended!