Rising head and shoulders above most made-for-cable offerings, this true-life crime story takes viewers step by step through the cracking of a bizarre murder case and demonstrates just how exciting the intricacies of brain power can be in the unraveling of a mystery.
High-powered corporate attorney Steven Keeney (Peter Horton) is blessed with a loving son, Christian (Nathan Lawrence), and a devoted lover, Wynn Burkholder (Wendy Makkena), but these relationships are jeopardized by a pro bono case that isn't even in his area of expertise. Approached by a
grieving mom, LuAnn Wilkens (Elizabeth Ruscio), goodhearted Keeney checks out her routine insurance request, never realizing that he's opened up a Pandora's box that will consume his life. Many questions arise in Keeney's mind when he discovers that LuAnn's naive daughter had somehow fallen to her
death during a suspiciously impromptu ocean-cliff expedition while staying with B. J. (James McAlpine) and Virginia McGinnis (Carrie Snodgress). Why was Melissa wearing high heels? Why was she slightly drugged? More importantly, why did the McGinnises take out a $30,000 life-insurance policy on
Melissa, a virtual stranger?
Tenaciously, Keeney pieces together Virginia McGinnis's homicidal history that seems to have included killing her own daughter and other family members for profit. While his private and public lives disintegrate due to his absorption in the case, Keeney visits Virginia's ex-husband, Dick Coates
(Jack Kehler), who supports Keeney's suspicions. But Coates kills himself before he can testify. The San Diego police agree to tackle the circumstantial case, but technical snafus severely limit the district attorney's evidence pool. Refusing to cave in, Keeney points out that a roll of film used
by the McGinnises as an alibi also proves that wily Virginia snapped photos after B. J. pushed Melissa off the cliffs. Keeney's meticulously developed theory helps convict the heretofore unconvictable--and always unrepentant--Virginia and B. J.
What distinguishes this compact thriller is how it generates high-octane suspense not from the straightforward depiction of a scary crime but from the minutiae of detective work used to solve it. Breathtakingly, DEATH BENEFIT finds a visual equivalent to the thought processes of the dogged lawyer:
the flashbacks to events surrounding Melissa's final moments bleed directly from quick shots of the crime-scene photos. The transitions between Keeney's insights into each photo and the reenactments of the corresponding moments are seamless.
If this reality-based terror tale has flaws, they are errors of omission. The viewer will want to know more about Melissa's personality and why it attracted the McGinnis duo. The film might also have benefited from devoting more screen time to Virginia, a character sketch brilliantly filled out by
Snodgress in her few scenes. But essentially, DEATH BENEFIT is a Peter Horton vehicle, and Horton does it full-throttle justice. (Violence, adult situations, profanity.) leave a comment
