Close to Danger (1997)

Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Lisa Rinna plays a college student typing a manuscript for a writer(Rob Estes). She falls in love with him and breaks up with her jealous boyfriend. She doesn't realize her new boyfriend is really a psychopath, even though he has pictures of Ted Bundy and Charles Manson on his wall. But then he asks her if he kills someone, if she would dissect the body for him! She then tells people that he is obsessed with killing someone. For some reason no one believes her, not even her psychology professor. She finally finds two detectives who try to help, but she also has to find out who he's actually planning to kill.One of the good things about the movie is that the actors are attractive, like someone else said. Rob Estes is a great actor and this is one of his best roles. Lisa Rinna does the best she can with a character who doesn't think her boyfriend is homicidal, until he brings up the joy of dissecting a dead body. Dean Stockwell is good as the psychology professor. I also liked Melissa McBride as Lisa's friend, as well as a possible victim.I also loved the background music. It goes great with the movie!The acting, plot, and background music make this easily one of the best TV movies.

It's one thing when Robert Redford and Dennis Quaid -- both good-looking, in-shape guys -- play characters 10 years younger in films, as they did in "The Natural" and "The Rookie," respectively. Or when Redford -- old enough to be her father -- played (very believably) a contemporary love interest with Kristin Scott Thomas in "The Horse Whisperer."But in some films, at least for me, the real ages of the actors, versus those of their characters portrayed, poses a distraction when viewing a film. In "Varsity Blues," the high-school "kids" were all old enough to have been out of college and into the workforce for periods up to several years, in terms of actual ages. And in this flick, while all are good-looking and bereft of wrinkles, the three leads are all more than 10 years older than the college students two are portrayed, with the third one, the aspiring writer, a supposed contemporary.Somehow, along with a script average at best, they simply seemed a bit old for the characters given them here. I've know quite a few psychologists, with doctorates, and viewing the conduct and their handling their children, as well as their personalities up-close, as far as being effective counselors for mental health and stability, they seemed more like the proverbial "fox in charge of the hen house." So it was with Dean Stockwell here when Lisa sought his counsel.The detectives with whom she sought assistance, and especially the two who provided her wire and instructed her in compromising the story's "villain," acted and delivered lines appropriate of the 5th and 6th leads in a high school play.And as another person commenting here stated (accurately, in my opinion) the most sympathetic character in this drama - as well as the most interesting personality - was the piece's villain.This was a film which one might watch, partly because the actors are attractive, but mostly to see if it doesn't get better and perhaps present some interesting drama later-on. Unfortunately, this wasn't to be here.

Well, won't go into the gory details but need to react to this horrible movie. No, not horror, horrible. Written by Philip Rosenberg and directed by Neema Barnette, they missed the boat here. Not a bad concept, although been done many times, there was empathy for the villain for a change. The performance of Rob Estes, in the role may have given it the dimension it needed. Certainly some of his lines were pretty corny and predictable, yet I found myself watching him. He evidently does lots of TV dramas and soaps so I guess this is old hat to him. Still I'd like to see him do a major role in a major film to show this young man's potential.Unfortunately he had to work opposite Lisa Rinna (doesn't she do commercials?) a not so good actress who over does hysteria bulging her bug eyes out and causing her lips to look like they've had lip suction surgery done to them. Never believable in her performance and her character is so annoying, I applauded her boy friend, played by Tom Wood, when he walked out on her. Good riddance I say for him. She got so obnoxious over things that she came off as a spoiled brat. I did like Melissa McBride in a smaller role of a possible victim. She had a nice quiet energy to her work putting Rinna to shame.Sadly there is Dean Stockwell in yet another thankless role. This well deserved actor keeps popping up in these trashy LMN soap operas. Dean, come back to Broadway. Get out of the trap of these bad movies. You deserve so much better.So my vote is 4 stars for the 4 stars; Estes, Wood, McBride and the body of work from Stockwell.

When a young college woman meets an unpublished author she is impressed with a story he is attempting to get in print. They become close but things begin to unravel when she senses a strangeness in the young writer after he begins talking about interlacing his fiction with the real world. A merely adequate picture which tries to offer up a nifty twist on the old psycho thriller flic but manages only to be another in a long line of psycho thriller flics. I've seen almost this exact same storyline and ending before.