Night Waves

Shelby Naylor (Sherilyn Fenn) faces rigorous physical therapy in the wake of the car crash that killed her husband, Pete (Kevin Jubinville). Pete’s insurance-firm partner, Tom Williams (Bruce Dinsmore), lends the widow moral support, but at the same time he's secretly snooping around the files Pete kept at the Naylor home. A CB-radio buff and computer nerd, Pete used to record police-radio transmissions as a hobby; in hopes of feeling close to her late spouse, Shelby takes up his pastime and listens in on high frequency calls. She even gets to play Good Samaritan when she intercepts a distress call from a small child. Tom warns Shelby that surreptitious surveillance carries risks and sure enough, Shelby overhears the cell-phone quarrels of power couple Brenda and David Birkwell (Emma Campbell, David Nerman). When Brenda vanishes, leaving a highly suspicious pool of blood in the family foyer, the police arrest David. Shelby testifies at his trial, hammering a few nails into the coffin of his defense. After hearing the suave Birkwell proclaims his innocence during a jail-house visit, Shelby begins to wonder whether she misinterpreted what she heard, but the fact that Pete recently approved a hefty life insurance policy on Brenda suggests a compelling motive for murder. While Shelby wonders whether she should continue to meddle, a mystery woman begins stalking her. As Shelby falls under David’s spell, she sifts through his half-truths and evasions; uncertain who's telling the truth and who's trying to manipulate her, Shelby now doesn’t know whether to trust David or Tom.

During Hollywood’s Golden Age of Melodrama, an iron-willed Barbara Stanwyck or Joan Crawford spun hugely entertain gold out of films about women trapped in webs of mystery and danger. But the fluttery Fenn can't make much of this modern-day spin on SORRY WRONG NUMBER (1948). leave a comment --Robert Pardi