Murder Most Likely
This post contains major spoilers.
‘Murder Most Likely’ is a chilling two-hour television movie starring Paul Gross, based on the book "The Judas Kiss: The Undercover Life of Patrick Kelly," by Michael Harris.
Paul Gross plays former RCMP Undercover Agent "Patrick Kelly" who, in 1981, was accused of causing the mysterious death of his wife. Managing to elude the authorities, Kelly married his second wife, and continued to live the extravagant lifestyle he so desperately desired. However, in 1984, based on the testimony of a key witness, Kelly was finally convicted of the first-degree murder of his wife, (allegedly by throwing her off the balcony of their luxury high-rise condo). But then a whole ten years later, the witness claimed she lied on the stand.
The moment this film started it had me hooked. Paul Gross was instantly oozing self confidence and charm. We immediately enter into a harsh undercover world that Kelly seems to love being apart of because he gets to be someone else. Then we see how he meet his first wife Marie (Marie-Josée Croze) and then the film explores Marie’s death and her funeral. We then go back to Kelly and Marie together to see how there marriage, Kelly’s dirty dealings and him meeting his second wife Linda (Kim Huffman) unfolded. Then we see the house of cards begin to crumble for Kelly before everything completely unravels for him with April Trent’s (Janine Theriault) testimony.
I like how the narrative is not linear the use of flashbacks helps to keep the story alive and means that no scene is wasted, it’s all used to explain who Kelly is and what happened. I was unsure at first about the documentary style talks to camera by some of the characters. But it’s more original and really helps to put across what each character thought of Kelly in a far quicker way then wasting scene time explaining it and thus more time is saved for scenes explaining Kelly’s relationship with his first and second wives and his other dealings.
I wish the film could have had more time to explore why the undercover world was so appealing to Kelly and why he wanted and needed the thrill of lying, of pretending to be someone else, what insecurities did he have? But Kelly is such a complex character that I don’t think we’d ever find an answer. Kelly seems to be someone who was living a lie and a truth at the same time.
The really great thing about Murder Most Likely is that knowing that Kelly may have killed his wife when the story goes back to showing the start of Kelly’s relationship with his first wife Marie, Paul Gross plays Kelly in those moments as a man truly in love I couldn’t help but be taken in by those moments and really fall for there romance. Credit also has to go to Marie-Josée Croze who did a wonderful job in portraying an exotic air , “a glow” as Kelly says, but to also be more than the exotic woman who seduced Kelly on a beech in Mexico. She was also believable as an ordinary woman who wanted a family more than an extravagate lifestyle. But back to there romance. Kelly’s love for Marie seems to be the truth and he wasn’t simply a lying manipulator. He did promise the world to both his wives and attempted to deliver it through dirty deals and coning his friend out of thousands of dollars, but he didn’t do it solely for his wives but because he craved the extravagant and as Kelly says himself “the things I did for her, well I did them for me to.”
What is also realistic of Gross playing Kelly as a man truly in love is that you see that Kelly does really have the commendable qualities that any woman would fall for. He’s charming and funny and he delivers his promises with such belief that you see why his wives fell for him and that’s what I kept doing. Even knowing that the likelihood was that he had killed his wife and that he was manipulating thousands of dollars out of an old friend of his, for some reason I was still somewhat seduced by his extravagate promises to his second wife Linda and he was, even then, manipulating that conversation to take Linda’s focus away from the police interest in him. So I had to shake myself out of it and remind myself that he was nothing more than a liar and most likely a wife murderer.
The film does seems to take the point of view that Kelly did in all likelihood kill his first wife. For example there is a scene where Kelly is getting ready for his wife’s funeral and he’s crying and he seems genuinely upset, however he soon stops crying and we see that his just practising his upset husband routine. Also his explanation for his wife’s death is suspicious especially as the film continues. We see that Kelly having resigned from the police force after questioned were raised about were he was getting the money to pay for his life style and the arsonist attack on his house, that he was having some money problems and this seemed to fuel the deterioration of his marriage to Marie and he began seeking an affair with Linda, that it is possible that he could have killed Marie for her life insurance. Yet the film also raises questions about why the police accepted April Trent’s testimony.
Detective Sean Exley (Tom McCamus) from day one has his doubts about Kelly and the little things in his story that don’t add up. Detective Exley then sets out to mount his case against Kelly and prove he murder his wife. So when April Trent claims that she saw Kelly throw his wife over the balcony Exley seems willing to over look the little things in her testimony that don’t add up so he can go to court with more than circumstantial evidence against Kelly. “Never let the facts get in the way of a good story.” Perhaps the Exley was also willing to do as Kelly does and dispenses of certain little facts so he could get a conviction against Kelly. The film also notes the un-answered questions in April Trent’s testimony by having Kelly and Marie wearing different clothes to what we saw they were wearing at the beginning of the film when Marie fell from the balcony. So while Kelly’s account of his wife’s death may have been suspect, April Trent’s testimony leaves nothing but un-answered questions. Why would Kelly murder Marie in front of April and then not deal with her or ensure that she wouldn‘t go to the police with what she saw by maintaining his strong hold on her? Why did no one question further the holes in April Trent’s testimony? And why when April Trent admitted ten years later that she lied on the stand no other questions were raised?
At the end I still did believe that in all likelihood Kelly did kill his wife however I could not believe April Trent’s testimony. You may think that Kelly did get what he deserved and what does it matter if the police were willing to over look the minor discrepancies in April Trent’s testimony but the jury that sentenced Kelly must have had the same questions about those discrepancies in April Trent’s testimony but it would seem that the jury had convicted Kelly on his other dirty dealings and his character and as Kelly says “justice is not a popularity contest.” I’m not saying that Kelly didn’t deserve to go to prison, he was a confessed money runner and evident fraud artists but he was convicted for 25 years without bail for murder on the evidence that was presented which was questionable and April Trent’s testimony would not have made me able to convict Kelly without reasonable doubt.
All in all an excellent piece of television.
Note: Summary in italic from imdb
‘Murder Most Likely’ is a chilling two-hour television movie starring Paul Gross, based on the book "The Judas Kiss: The Undercover Life of Patrick Kelly," by Michael Harris.
Paul Gross plays former RCMP Undercover Agent "Patrick Kelly" who, in 1981, was accused of causing the mysterious death of his wife. Managing to elude the authorities, Kelly married his second wife, and continued to live the extravagant lifestyle he so desperately desired. However, in 1984, based on the testimony of a key witness, Kelly was finally convicted of the first-degree murder of his wife, (allegedly by throwing her off the balcony of their luxury high-rise condo). But then a whole ten years later, the witness claimed she lied on the stand.
The moment this film started it had me hooked. Paul Gross was instantly oozing self confidence and charm. We immediately enter into a harsh undercover world that Kelly seems to love being apart of because he gets to be someone else. Then we see how he meet his first wife Marie (Marie-Josée Croze) and then the film explores Marie’s death and her funeral. We then go back to Kelly and Marie together to see how there marriage, Kelly’s dirty dealings and him meeting his second wife Linda (Kim Huffman) unfolded. Then we see the house of cards begin to crumble for Kelly before everything completely unravels for him with April Trent’s (Janine Theriault) testimony.
I like how the narrative is not linear the use of flashbacks helps to keep the story alive and means that no scene is wasted, it’s all used to explain who Kelly is and what happened. I was unsure at first about the documentary style talks to camera by some of the characters. But it’s more original and really helps to put across what each character thought of Kelly in a far quicker way then wasting scene time explaining it and thus more time is saved for scenes explaining Kelly’s relationship with his first and second wives and his other dealings.
I wish the film could have had more time to explore why the undercover world was so appealing to Kelly and why he wanted and needed the thrill of lying, of pretending to be someone else, what insecurities did he have? But Kelly is such a complex character that I don’t think we’d ever find an answer. Kelly seems to be someone who was living a lie and a truth at the same time.
The really great thing about Murder Most Likely is that knowing that Kelly may have killed his wife when the story goes back to showing the start of Kelly’s relationship with his first wife Marie, Paul Gross plays Kelly in those moments as a man truly in love I couldn’t help but be taken in by those moments and really fall for there romance. Credit also has to go to Marie-Josée Croze who did a wonderful job in portraying an exotic air , “a glow” as Kelly says, but to also be more than the exotic woman who seduced Kelly on a beech in Mexico. She was also believable as an ordinary woman who wanted a family more than an extravagate lifestyle. But back to there romance. Kelly’s love for Marie seems to be the truth and he wasn’t simply a lying manipulator. He did promise the world to both his wives and attempted to deliver it through dirty deals and coning his friend out of thousands of dollars, but he didn’t do it solely for his wives but because he craved the extravagant and as Kelly says himself “the things I did for her, well I did them for me to.”
What is also realistic of Gross playing Kelly as a man truly in love is that you see that Kelly does really have the commendable qualities that any woman would fall for. He’s charming and funny and he delivers his promises with such belief that you see why his wives fell for him and that’s what I kept doing. Even knowing that the likelihood was that he had killed his wife and that he was manipulating thousands of dollars out of an old friend of his, for some reason I was still somewhat seduced by his extravagate promises to his second wife Linda and he was, even then, manipulating that conversation to take Linda’s focus away from the police interest in him. So I had to shake myself out of it and remind myself that he was nothing more than a liar and most likely a wife murderer.
The film does seems to take the point of view that Kelly did in all likelihood kill his first wife. For example there is a scene where Kelly is getting ready for his wife’s funeral and he’s crying and he seems genuinely upset, however he soon stops crying and we see that his just practising his upset husband routine. Also his explanation for his wife’s death is suspicious especially as the film continues. We see that Kelly having resigned from the police force after questioned were raised about were he was getting the money to pay for his life style and the arsonist attack on his house, that he was having some money problems and this seemed to fuel the deterioration of his marriage to Marie and he began seeking an affair with Linda, that it is possible that he could have killed Marie for her life insurance. Yet the film also raises questions about why the police accepted April Trent’s testimony.
Detective Sean Exley (Tom McCamus) from day one has his doubts about Kelly and the little things in his story that don’t add up. Detective Exley then sets out to mount his case against Kelly and prove he murder his wife. So when April Trent claims that she saw Kelly throw his wife over the balcony Exley seems willing to over look the little things in her testimony that don’t add up so he can go to court with more than circumstantial evidence against Kelly. “Never let the facts get in the way of a good story.” Perhaps the Exley was also willing to do as Kelly does and dispenses of certain little facts so he could get a conviction against Kelly. The film also notes the un-answered questions in April Trent’s testimony by having Kelly and Marie wearing different clothes to what we saw they were wearing at the beginning of the film when Marie fell from the balcony. So while Kelly’s account of his wife’s death may have been suspect, April Trent’s testimony leaves nothing but un-answered questions. Why would Kelly murder Marie in front of April and then not deal with her or ensure that she wouldn‘t go to the police with what she saw by maintaining his strong hold on her? Why did no one question further the holes in April Trent’s testimony? And why when April Trent admitted ten years later that she lied on the stand no other questions were raised?
At the end I still did believe that in all likelihood Kelly did kill his wife however I could not believe April Trent’s testimony. You may think that Kelly did get what he deserved and what does it matter if the police were willing to over look the minor discrepancies in April Trent’s testimony but the jury that sentenced Kelly must have had the same questions about those discrepancies in April Trent’s testimony but it would seem that the jury had convicted Kelly on his other dirty dealings and his character and as Kelly says “justice is not a popularity contest.” I’m not saying that Kelly didn’t deserve to go to prison, he was a confessed money runner and evident fraud artists but he was convicted for 25 years without bail for murder on the evidence that was presented which was questionable and April Trent’s testimony would not have made me able to convict Kelly without reasonable doubt.
All in all an excellent piece of television.
Note: Summary in italic from imdb