Thu 14 May 2020
TIME OF DEATH. TV Movie. Incendo, Canada, 2013. Kathleen Robertson, Gianpaolo Venuta, Sarah Power, Link Baker, Daniel Fathers. Director: Frédéric D’Amours. Currently streaming on Amazon.
I went looking, but I’ve not found out much of anything about the production company behind this, other than it was a Canadian project and it was made for television. As far as IMDb is concerned, Canada might just as well be a foreign country.
It’s one of those films that captures your attention for about 2/3 of the way through before verging off into a rather disappointing rest of the way. How it begins is as a detective story, then… well, I’ll get back to that. When the head of a tech company is murdered late at night, the Department of Defense sends an FBI agent to investigate. I’m not too clear on the details here, and writing down what I think happened, it’s even less clear, but when the agent is as good-looking as icy blonde Kathleen Robertson is, you are a little more forgiving about certain vageries of the story line.
Which is what I think the producers of the film had in mind during their casting sessions. In any case she is (mis)matched up with a young cop on the local police force (Gianpaolo Venuta) who has been on the job for only two weeks. Sigh. Why do things like this happen to me, she thinks. They turn out to be a good pair, however, and the early part of the story they do a goodly amount of fine detective work together, as other high-ranking members of the firm are also killed, one by one, and always at the same time: 10:44.
The detective business comes to an abrupt end, though, when the killer, feeling closed in upon, reveals him- or herself, and the rest of the movie takes on the guise of a less than ordinary thriller flick, as the pair try to stop the killer before he or she strikes again. Oh, well. It was a nice try until then.
The movie is made with some style, though and Robertson and Venuta seem to have had a good time working together. The former even makes up with the latter’s superior officer who foisted him off on her. I suspect that the makers of this movie had a followup series in mind. It didn’t happen, but it could have.
May 14th, 2020 at 11:11 pm
First, Canada is a foreign country even if they are Americans.
Here is a link to a little more about it (yes it was made in Canada).
http://www.incendo.ca/productions/time-of-death
IMDb now hides some of its info such as production details behind a paywall (it is also a streaming service).
May 14th, 2020 at 11:22 pm
Thanks for the link, Michael. Not a lot of information there, but it’s more than I had.
PS. Some of my best friends are Canadians, including my brother, his wife, and their extended family. Never thought of them as foreigners but I guess maybe they are.
May 15th, 2020 at 2:46 pm
Arrogant Worms sang it best…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29g57XTYgLE
May 15th, 2020 at 3:33 pm
I love it!
May 15th, 2020 at 4:03 pm
Most of my Canadian friends are happy to be a foreign country.
There used to be quite a few Canadian series show up on television — especially syndicated. I don’t know if as much American television is still filmed in Canada as it used to be. Quite a bit of X FILES was filmed there.
May 15th, 2020 at 6:32 pm
David, Toronto used to be hot as it was cheaper and looked fresher that L.A. It still offers much but competes more with Georgia, Louisiana, and New Mexico. Even Los Angeles is drawing more production back into state.
Some of the current Canadian TV series on are MURDOCH’S MYSTERIES, WYNONNA EARP, BARONESS VON SKETCH SHOW, and SCHITT’S CREEK (last season for award winning series).