Secrets of Eden (2012)

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Absolutely Fantastic

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

This is a surprisingly good film for an afternoon movie. My husband and I kept changing our minds about who had done it. There is a surprise at the end which we hadn't seen coming.When there is an apparent murder/suicide in a small town, the detective who investigates finds evidence of an affair between a rather attractive pastor and the deceased woman.The town scenes are attractively portrayed. The acting was very good all round and looking back there are clues along the way. The flashbacks were occasionally a bit confusing but at the end they seem to fit in with what has happened. Some of the flash backs were quite chilling and the pastor's calm persona was quite creepy at times.I didn't expect much from an afternoon movie but this is well above average.

This is not half-bad as something you might watch casually while taking care of other things.John Stamos is interesting as a rather smarmy pastor looking to stand out more than he could in New York City by taking a pulpit in a picture-perfect New England town.Sonya Salomaa, a stunning Christie Brinkley look-alike, does well as the miserable housewife who falls for his charms.And Anna Gunn convinces as a detective laboring under a DA who cares nothing about the facts of a murder and only about his political prospects.I caught the subtle foreshadowing of the movie's surprise conclusion. Even so, my goosebumps surprised me.

I thought John Stamos was great in this. I had it on my DVR forever and finally decided to watch it. As someone who grew up watching her "father" abuse her mother, this one was a little tough for me. Did my "father" go as far as George did, not that I'm aware of, but it doesn't matter. George got what he deserved, and I couldn't stop myself from clapping and I was proud that his daughter didn't regret giving it to him and was not punished for it. It really doesn't need to be said that the wife shouldn't have taken George back, and that she shouldn't have kept proclaiming that George really did love her and that he didn't want to hurt her. It didn't look like he loved her to me, and he certainly wanted to hurt her. This was obviously a woman with no self worth, and when the pastor was no longer willing to play house while she was married to George, she figured that it was he who didn't really love her and that she should go back to the man who had no problem with breaking her arm and beating her senseless because he really did love her despite all that. In one scene she seems almost nonchalant after George apparently beat her head against a picture frame on a brick wall. How pathetic. I had sympathy for her, but she was so pathetic and useless and I didn't understand why she couldn't understand that George did not love her. Even if she decided to stay, why play dumb? Did she think he loved her while he was choking the life out of her too? Anyway, I figured all along that it was the daughter. I was 99% sure.

I love watching mystery movies for the pleasure of gathering clues along with the characters and trying to figure out who the killer is. I also love films made for TV. They have less of special effects, but more of emotions. I read the description of this one and was excited to see it. I shouldn't have expected that much however. The actors' work wasn't anything brilliant or memorable, the storyline goes rather slow and I figured out the ending after 1/3 of the movie passed. I guess, this piece can be offered to people who like to watch an afternoon drama while ironing or solving a crossword. If you are a fan of crime however, skip it. It's too simple and too uneventful. No twists, no surprises.