I like Brittany Murphy and this is the main reason I sought out this movie. She is good as Cilla McGowan, returning to her grandmother's former home in Virginia (filmed in the New Orleans area) to restore it and live in the area. Cilla had been a child star but realized her acting career was not gaining momentum, so she was instead going to make her living as a contractor, buying distressed properties and fixing them up for sale. In this movie she even studies for and passes her test to become a licensed contractor.
Her grandmother had died some 35 years earlier, rules suicide, but some letter Cilla found in a secluded room made her begin to wonder if that was the whole story. And, did her grandmother really take her own life?
As soon as Cilla makes her first venture outside with a maul in her hands, neighbor Jason Lewis as Ford Sawyer walks over. He is instantly smitten and spends the rest of the movie trying to gain Cilla's affections. It turns out that Steve is a fairly famous (in fan circles) author of fantasy graphic novels. Cilla comes just when he is developing a new character, and her looks and spunk become the role model for the new character.
I would like to say this is a good movie but I can't. It plays out as a "B" movie. Many of the characters, and much of the dialog, don't come across as believable. Plus there are a couple of "red herring" incidents which have nothing to do with the actual story being told. It is sort of interesting, but ultimately not the best time spent watching a movie. By that I mean watching an old favorite again is probably better entertainment for most of us.
MAJOR SPOILERS: As Cilla reads the unsigned letters she figures out that her grandmother had been pregnant, and because of the postmark must have been a local man. Strange things begin to happen, someone comes during the night to deface her remodeling project, her truck, etc. It finally turns out to be the wife of her grandmother's lover, who holds such a grudge against the family that she wants Cilla to leave. In the movie's climax the woman lures Cilla into the old home at night, drugs her, and plans to use a funnel and tube to kill her just as she had killed her grandmother 35 years earlier. Ford is at a party and realizes all this just in time to get to Cilla, saves her, and they decide to get married and live happily ever after.
Her grandmother had died some 35 years earlier, rules suicide, but some letter Cilla found in a secluded room made her begin to wonder if that was the whole story. And, did her grandmother really take her own life?
As soon as Cilla makes her first venture outside with a maul in her hands, neighbor Jason Lewis as Ford Sawyer walks over. He is instantly smitten and spends the rest of the movie trying to gain Cilla's affections. It turns out that Steve is a fairly famous (in fan circles) author of fantasy graphic novels. Cilla comes just when he is developing a new character, and her looks and spunk become the role model for the new character.
I would like to say this is a good movie but I can't. It plays out as a "B" movie. Many of the characters, and much of the dialog, don't come across as believable. Plus there are a couple of "red herring" incidents which have nothing to do with the actual story being told. It is sort of interesting, but ultimately not the best time spent watching a movie. By that I mean watching an old favorite again is probably better entertainment for most of us.
MAJOR SPOILERS: As Cilla reads the unsigned letters she figures out that her grandmother had been pregnant, and because of the postmark must have been a local man. Strange things begin to happen, someone comes during the night to deface her remodeling project, her truck, etc. It finally turns out to be the wife of her grandmother's lover, who holds such a grudge against the family that she wants Cilla to leave. In the movie's climax the woman lures Cilla into the old home at night, drugs her, and plans to use a funnel and tube to kill her just as she had killed her grandmother 35 years earlier. Ford is at a party and realizes all this just in time to get to Cilla, saves her, and they decide to get married and live happily ever after.