Above Average Made for TV Filmby Anonymous

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September 15, 2007: Readers of Nora Roberts books will doubtless want to watch this adaptation of one of her popular novels (to date there are four of her books translated into made for television movies). The story, as adapted by Ronni Kern, is straight forward with enough of a mixture of love scenes and action scenes to please the audience. No, this is not a major league film, but it is made with a fine cast of actors who bring the drama to life. Reena Hale (Alicia Witt) watched as her family's pizzeria burned to the ground after a scuffle between Reena's father Gib (Eric Keenleyside) and neighbor Joe Pastorelli (David Brown). Pastorelli is convicted of arson and swears to get even. Jump years later and Reena is now an arson investigator under the tutelage of Officer John Minger (Scott Bakula) who had solved the case in Reena's family's loss. Once credentialed, Reena finds herself stalked by an arsonist who just happens to include two of Reena's boyfriends as victims of deaths by fire. The story is a search and destroy mission to discover the identity of the arsonist and Reena is aided by her newest love interest Bo Goodnight (Matthew Settle) in a taut, well paced and well filmed adventure: if the identity of the arsonist is rather apparent early on, that doesn't diminish the suspense aspect of the film. The supporting cast includes fine actor Talia Shire as Reena's mother, a role that adds a touch of human comedy as well as unconditional love that lifts the story just when it needs grounding, as well as some very fine fresh faces with promise. David Carson directs the many fire scenes with a good sense of 'reality' and delivers a sound message about the worth of arson investigators and firemen. But in the end it is Alicia Witt's movie and she carries her character well. Good entertainment. Grady Harp