Last night, I finally found the time to sit down and watch Reluctant Witness.  Of course, if you know me, you know that I can only sit still for 15 minutes at a time.  So, I spent a good deal of the movie standing up and cleaning the living room but, no matter what else I was doing, I still continued to watch the movie.

Why Was I Watching It?

Reluctant Witness actually premiered last Sunday.  That was the same day that I got back from my vacation and I was way too busy unpacking and cleaning the house to watch it.  So, I set the DVR to record it because you never know when an unexpectedly brilliant movie might suddenly show up on Lifetime.  Last night, I finally remembered that Reluctant Witness was on the DVR so I decided to watch it and see if it was another classic, like Confessions of Go Go Girl.  (It turned out not to be a classic but it was Canadian and that’s almost as good!)

What Was It About?

Melissa (Mia Kirshner) was married to a Chicago gangster named Jimmy (James Kirk).  Jimmy was an abusive psychopath, the type of goes out his way to give the city of Chicago an even worse reputation than it already has.  So, Melissa goes to the FBI and offers to testify against Jimmy but only if they agree to help her and her daughter start a new life somewhere else.  Of course, the FBI says yes.

So, Jimmy goes to prison.  And then, a decade later, he gets paroled and he uses all of his gangster money to have plastic surgery.  And the plastic surgery is so amazingly good that he comes out of it looking like a totally different person!  (It helps that post-surgery Jimmy is played by a totally different actor named Paul McGillion.)  Jimmy fakes his own death and then goes searching for his wife.

Melissa has a totally new life, with new friends and a new boyfriend and a daughter who only sorta resents her.  Not only that but she also has a brand new name!  Melissa is now named Erin!  Everything appears to be perfect until the mysterious Warren shows up.  Warren reminds Erin of Jimmy.  Is Erin correct or is she just paranoid?

(Of course, we already know that Warren is actually Paul.  There wouldn’t be much of a movie otherwise…)

What Worked?

Mia Kirshner kicked ass in the role of Melissa/Erin!  I loved the fact that she the same reaction to all of this that I would probably have — which is to say that she was really annoyed and kinda wished that everyone would just go away.

What Did Not Work?

Despite having a somewhat interesting plot, the film just failed to hold my interest.  Maybe it’s because I was busy obsessively cleaning the living room but I found my mind wandering through the entire film.  It has all the elements for a good Lifetime film but they never quite came together.

“Oh my God!  Just like me!” Moments

I have a sister named Melissa and a sister named Erin!  Okay, so technically, that’s not really a “just like me” moment but I love my sisters.

Lessons Learned

Chicago is full of gangsters.