The Cases of Mystery Lane (2023) (Prime Video/Hallmark Now)
Some of the reviews here are flat out wrong in their facts, so I'll try to correct them. First let's set up the premise. To begin the movie, we witness an old man open an apartment door, only to be shocked to death with a stun gun. We are told shortly after that a known gangster who has been missing for a couple of decades was found dead in a construction site. We the audience should make a connection, but for now that's all we get. On to the Case family.
Aimee Garcia (sooo lovely!) and Paul Campbell (looking goofy in glasses) play a husband and wife here--Birdie and Alden Case. Birdie Case is a lawyer who works for a law firm where her mother (Jacqueline Samuda) is the senior partner--and a demanding boss.
We find out early on that Alden Case has had a number of jobs--and no, he is not an accountant, never was. Most recently he worked in cryptocurrency, and that one cost the couple so much money to get out of that they are still paying for it. Birdie is not pleased with Alden's rotating job history. At the moment Alden is going to night school. Birdie thinks he is learning accounting, but some time ago he gave that up and wandered across the hall to attend private investigation training--without telling Birdie. This will come to light soon enough, and Birdie will NOT be pleased.
Alden is also not terribly happy with Birdie. He tries to tell her about his PI training one morning, but she seems to be WAY too interested in her co-worker Kyle (Jesse Moss), so Alden doesn't get a moment to talk to her. As the next class assignment for Alden is to shadow someone, he chooses to shadow Kyle. We witness Alden's constant mocking comments about Kyle--it's clear he does NOT like Kyle. (Nor did I).
Over the course of a day, Alden shadows Kyle, until that evening when Kyle returns to the law office after hours. Shortly after entering, Alden sees Kyle burst out the front door in a panic and drive away. Alden, puzzled, goes inside. First he goes to his wife's office and pokes around her desk--and finds legal papers for a dissolution of their marriage. Shocked, Alden leaves the papers, then as he prepares to leave, he notices a light on in another office down the hall. He goes to check it...and finds another partner, Tim (Ryan Mah) dead, hanging from a rope...and we've just got our mystery.
As Alden backs out of Tim's door, he is greeted by several police officers. They tell him to put his hands up, but instead he turns and vomits against the wall. Fortunately, Alden's story is believed by the arriving police. As he sits on the back of an ambulance a few minutes later, Birdie arrives. At this point, Alden's PI classes, Birdie's divorce papers, it's all going to come to light.
A pretty good mystery comes out of all this, and, yes, somehow it brings Alden and Birdie a bit (a smidge?) closer--though he will sleep on the couch tonight.
I'm going to leave the true investigation for you to watch and enjoy. There is actually a lot to it. There are a lot of clues to follow up. Some will be red herrings--some will not be. Will Birdie forgive Alden for lying about the PI training? Will Alden forgive Birdie for not telling him about the divorce papers? Will their marriage survive? How deep will Alden...and Birdie? ...get into finding out who killed Tim? Or was this really just a suicide? At the time the police sent Alden home, Officer Newton (Matt Hamilton, who hilariously puts air quotes around nearly everything he says) said the police were ruling Tim's death a suicide. And oh, by the way, Alden couldn't help thinking about the blue sedan that had been following him all day while he was following Kyle, which he didn't mention to anyone yet. Just what was going on with that??
I really think that this movie is both a pretty good mystery and a pretty good romance. It takes some work to create tension in a romance when the couple are already married--but they manage to do it here.
Is this movie perfect? No--it's Hallmark, and there will always be a few head scratchers, but I think you will really enjoy it if this genre is your cup of tea.
Some of the reviews here are flat out wrong in their facts, so I'll try to correct them. First let's set up the premise. To begin the movie, we witness an old man open an apartment door, only to be shocked to death with a stun gun. We are told shortly after that a known gangster who has been missing for a couple of decades was found dead in a construction site. We the audience should make a connection, but for now that's all we get. On to the Case family.
Aimee Garcia (sooo lovely!) and Paul Campbell (looking goofy in glasses) play a husband and wife here--Birdie and Alden Case. Birdie Case is a lawyer who works for a law firm where her mother (Jacqueline Samuda) is the senior partner--and a demanding boss.
We find out early on that Alden Case has had a number of jobs--and no, he is not an accountant, never was. Most recently he worked in cryptocurrency, and that one cost the couple so much money to get out of that they are still paying for it. Birdie is not pleased with Alden's rotating job history. At the moment Alden is going to night school. Birdie thinks he is learning accounting, but some time ago he gave that up and wandered across the hall to attend private investigation training--without telling Birdie. This will come to light soon enough, and Birdie will NOT be pleased.
Alden is also not terribly happy with Birdie. He tries to tell her about his PI training one morning, but she seems to be WAY too interested in her co-worker Kyle (Jesse Moss), so Alden doesn't get a moment to talk to her. As the next class assignment for Alden is to shadow someone, he chooses to shadow Kyle. We witness Alden's constant mocking comments about Kyle--it's clear he does NOT like Kyle. (Nor did I).
Over the course of a day, Alden shadows Kyle, until that evening when Kyle returns to the law office after hours. Shortly after entering, Alden sees Kyle burst out the front door in a panic and drive away. Alden, puzzled, goes inside. First he goes to his wife's office and pokes around her desk--and finds legal papers for a dissolution of their marriage. Shocked, Alden leaves the papers, then as he prepares to leave, he notices a light on in another office down the hall. He goes to check it...and finds another partner, Tim (Ryan Mah) dead, hanging from a rope...and we've just got our mystery.
As Alden backs out of Tim's door, he is greeted by several police officers. They tell him to put his hands up, but instead he turns and vomits against the wall. Fortunately, Alden's story is believed by the arriving police. As he sits on the back of an ambulance a few minutes later, Birdie arrives. At this point, Alden's PI classes, Birdie's divorce papers, it's all going to come to light.
A pretty good mystery comes out of all this, and, yes, somehow it brings Alden and Birdie a bit (a smidge?) closer--though he will sleep on the couch tonight.
I'm going to leave the true investigation for you to watch and enjoy. There is actually a lot to it. There are a lot of clues to follow up. Some will be red herrings--some will not be. Will Birdie forgive Alden for lying about the PI training? Will Alden forgive Birdie for not telling him about the divorce papers? Will their marriage survive? How deep will Alden...and Birdie? ...get into finding out who killed Tim? Or was this really just a suicide? At the time the police sent Alden home, Officer Newton (Matt Hamilton, who hilariously puts air quotes around nearly everything he says) said the police were ruling Tim's death a suicide. And oh, by the way, Alden couldn't help thinking about the blue sedan that had been following him all day while he was following Kyle, which he didn't mention to anyone yet. Just what was going on with that??
I really think that this movie is both a pretty good mystery and a pretty good romance. It takes some work to create tension in a romance when the couple are already married--but they manage to do it here.
Is this movie perfect? No--it's Hallmark, and there will always be a few head scratchers, but I think you will really enjoy it if this genre is your cup of tea.
