Lifetime
If you only watch Lifetime movies, you’re probably thinking Nashville is the most dangerous city in the world, or that being a country music artist has its hazards. Oddly enough, following last February’s Murder in Nashville, Lifetime has rolled out Murder in Music City … which is Nashville. It will be interesting to see if perhaps next February the network gives us Murder in the Country Music Capital of the World, because we’re running out of alternate names for Nashville (I suppose they can start using alternate words for ‘Murder’).
This year’s homicidal country music thriller stars Deena Dill as country superstar Abilene Tucker (any relation to Tanya?), who finds herself in a touch of trouble — hunky songwriter Jimmy Stone, who is already pretty beat up, is living in Abilene’s guest house, composing a song about someone named Stephanie. He never gets to finish that song because someone sneaks up behind him and bashes his brains out with a guitar. Abilene finds the body, calls the police and then calls her daughter Caroline, pleading with her to come home, and when she arrives she finds her mother alternately hysterical and uncooperative with the police, leading to her arrest on suspicion of murder, because she was covered in Jimmy’s blood, despite her pleas of innocence. While she is being driven away, Caroline spots a man — in a Black Hoodie! — standing with the crowd outside the gates of the house and quickly discovers that this is the man who had been stalking her and her mother. And he’s supposed to be in a mental health facility in California. Caroline alerts Abilene’s spooky assistant Barbara, but she doesn’t believe it could be the guy … until she finds out he was indeed released. Could he have gotten onto the property and murdered Jimmy? Caroline goes for a walk on a path on the property behind the house and is confronted by the stalker who is babbling some nonsense at her, and out of nowhere a mystery hunk jumps the guy, and Caroline calls the police. If you’d been paying attention, the new guy was also outside the gates and after Caroline invites him in to thank him for helping her, he admits a startling truth — he’s Jimmy’s brother Kyle, and he was hoping to gather up Jimmy’s belongings, notably some diaries that Jimmy used to write down music and lyrics, one in particular that has a painful song about Kyle and a situation that caused the brothers to become estranged. Mind you, this is still an active crime scene so they should not be moving anything in the guest house, but they do and even Barbara has issue with that. This begins the momentum for the rest of the story and introduces a cast of characters, all of whom may have had a reason to kill Jimmy.
Lifetime
Of course, the prime suspect is Abilene, who after she is finally released from jail admits she may have been using Jimmy for more than his songwriting skills — to no one’s surprise — but why would she want to kill the young man? Barbara is main suspect number two because she is nothing but shady. She was the president of an Abilene Tucker fan club and now she’s basically running Abilene’s life, so a young buck like Jimmy could certainly put her employment in jeopardy, especially since he’s already wormed his way into Abilene’s life to the point that he’s convinced her to drop her management and seek new representation. That then brings us to agent Marcia, who lost one of her biggest cash cows thanks to Jimmy. She has more than enough reason to want him dead. But don’t count out Hank James, Abilene’s second husband and current ex (her first, Caroline’s father, is dearly departed), a man she made just one album with before he got pushed aside. Is he still angry enough with Abilene to want to kill the man she’s currently writing (and making — wink wink) music with? We can’t leave Kyle out of the picture either. He showed up pretty quickly at the gates following the murder and then along the path — and he was also captured by Abilene’s trail cameras the night of the murder — and he has enough reason to want to take out his anger over a woman named Stephanie, who came between them and tore the brothers apart. Caroline doesn’t know who to trust anymore, but she thinks she and Abilene are going to take some time off and go to Europe (again, this is still an active crime situation and I’m not sure she would be free to leave the country just yet) but … once-estranged manager Marcia suddenly shows up at the house with offers for Abilene to tour, get a potential Las Vegas-style residency somewhere that isn’t Vegas, new records, all because of her newfound notoriety. Caroline is really hurt that she had her mom for a hot second and now she’s pushed aside again for Abilene’s career, but something is not sitting right with her about Jimmy’s murder, especially after she hears her mother and surprise guest Hank rehearsing a new song for her upcoming concert. By this point, Kyle has been arrested for the murder after a pair of bloody gloves were found in his pickup, and Caroline goes on a mission to find the missing diary … which she does (in a hidden safe in Barbara’s office) that has the same lyrics written down that Abilene and Hank were singing. This seems to exonerate Kyle, but now who among Abilene’s circle could be the culprit? The reveal is worthy of (or borrowed directly from) an Agatha Christie novel.
Lifetime
Murder in Music City, from writers Bryan Dick and Ken Sanders, does a nice job of laying out the central mystery and introduces a cast of characters all with a motive for wanting the guy dead, and many of them act shady enough to keep the viewers off balance, constantly trying to guess which one did it. From the first second I saw Barbara, I said she did it, but I had to change my thoughts a few times throughout the story. Caroline and, ironically, the stalker are the only two people not on the suspect list (and the stalker is nothing but a big red herring disposed of rather quickly). The Macguffin of the story — the plot device — is the missing diary. It’s what Kyle wants and someone else is hiding. It is the key to solving the mystery of Jimmy’s murder, and the way Caroline is hit with a ton of bricks when she hears her mother and Hank singing ‘Hey Baby’ makes it all the more important that she find it to expose Jimmy’s killer. It really is all laid out very well, one piece of the puzzle connecting to another with various characters doing their best to lead Caroline in different directions, seeing that she is catching on and getting much too close to figuring things out. And when she does let everyone know what she knows in her best Hercule Poirot fashion, the one way she may be silenced is to almost make her complicit, giving her an offer she can’t refuse. The final resolution is very clever and rewarding as the whole murder conspiracy comes unraveled. Director Dave Thomas does a nice job of keeping the story moving and juggles a lot of moving pieces, needing to keep both Caroline and the audience on their toes so the identity of the killer isn’t guessed too early in the story. And I have to tip my hat to Thomas for showing us most of the characters in question all holding that bloody guitar as Caroline comes to different conclusions as to who the killer is. Too many of these Lifetime mysteries make the culprit way too obvious through either the writing or the acting, but everything here is balanced nicely enough to make it difficult to figure out whodunit.
Lifetime
The cast are all fantastic at giving their characters their own personalities, but all of those who are suspects act shady enough to never reveal who the killer is. Deena Dill does a really nice job of making Abilene seem like the innocent victim, convincingly pleading with everyone of her innocence as she’s led away. She makes her jail stay seem harrowing — complete with a black eye she alleges came from a guard (with the sure to be classic line, ‘Nobody appreciates sass anymore’) — and she seems totally exhilarated to be set free, ready to start a new chapter in her life and spending time with her daughter. But the second she gets a career boost, her whole personality changes, she becomes completely self-absorbed and you have to wonder if you weren’t wrong about her innocence. It’s a great performance, and even though she doesn’t do her own vocals (which were provided by Paulina Jayne, perfectly fooling me into believing Ms. Dill was singing), she really sells the illusion convincingly with some perfect lip sync and real emotion poured into those musical performances.
Madison Crawford is also excellent as Caroline. She comes running when her mother needs her and it’s never clear what kind of relationship she has with Abilene, but there are some hints dropped that she doesn’t think much of Hank or her mother’s succession of boytoys, and she also does not rely on Abilene’s money to get by in life (although a major secret about Carline’s livelihood is dropped later in the story). Crawford manages to keep Caroline a total innocent in the story, outside looking in trying to do what she thinks is the right thing by helping Kyle, but getting confusing mixed signals from everyone else. She is as much in the dark about what happened as we are, and Crawford allows the viewer to see the story unfold through her eyes. We have to identify and connect with Caroline to make this all work, and Crawford does a perfect job of doing just that.
Lifetime
The rest of the cast also got the memo and put in the work. Brigdon York always seems to have an air of suspicion around him, especially as he is so adamant in finding that diary. But the moment those gloves are found in his truck, we have no choice but to believe he was framed. Kyle really isn’t seen much after his arrest so taking him out of the picture seems to support this notion. But York brings a brooding demeanor to Kyle so we really aren’t sure if he did it, considering he’s not happy about Jimmy airing their dirty laundry in a song. Elizabeth Houston brings nothing but shade to the role of Barbara, always appearing to be hiding something, or covering up something, either with her facial expressions or in how she delivers her lines. She always appears on edge. It certainly was a choice to portray the character this way — the actor’s or the director’s? — but Houston makes Barbara someone you do not want to cross or turn your back to.
John Castle does a nice job as Hank, though his scenes are limited. He seems to have a contentious relationship with Abilene through his behavior with Caroline in his first scene, so it is quite a surprise when he turns up on stage with her like nothing bad ever went down between them. Of course, that may make one think, ‘Are they working together? Were they using Jimmy to write some new material and then killed him for it?’ Castle is always good in his different roles across Lifetime and LMN, and this one is no exception (he also really sells the lip sync during his duet with Abilene). Sharonne Lanier may be the shadiest of them all as manager Marcia. She shows up out of the blue after Abilene is denied bail and reveals to Caroline how Jimmy was pulling all the strings, leading Abilene to drop Marcia as her rep. She clearly has motive to want Jimmy dead, and she makes no attempt at hiding her contempt for the man. As with Hank, we’re as shocked as Caroline when Marcia shows up at the house with the tour and residency offers, especially because Abilene seems to have completely forgotten that she was the one who dropped Marcia. With Jimmy out of the way, Marcia wastes no time in sinking her hooks back into her biggest client. Ty Trumbo also manages to show us just enough of what a controlling ass Jimmy is in his few scenes, especially in Marcia’s office and the moment leading up to how his face got busted up courtesy of Hank. He might be hot and talented, but he pissed off enough people, and Trumbo’s performance makes us feel that Jimmy may have gotten what he deserved, or at least facilitated his own demise.
Lifetime
Murder in Music City is a pretty decent murder mystery, borrowing elements from the best of Agatha Christie (or the Knives Out series), delivering a reprehensible character who pushes someone to kill them, and builds a nice collection of personalities all with enough motive to have committed the crime. The cast, headed by Dill and Crawford, do some great work, the script keeps you guessing, and the production helmed by Dave Thomas looks expensive and is pieced together so well that you may be surprised when the actual killer is revealed. Great job by everyone involved. And just a suggestion — Lifetime or Storyteller Studios should release the three songs in the movie on iTunes. ‘Hey Baby’ in particular, sung by Paulina Jayne and Rob Crosby, was actually pretty catchy.
Murder in Music City has a run time of 1 hour 27 minutes, and is rated TV-14.