Lifetime
Lifetime’s latest thriller, Murder in Nashville, purports to be inspired by true events. We’ll have to take their word for it. Set in the city that is the heart of Country music, Murder in Nashville follows Eden Perry (Sarah Zanotti), a young woman from New York newly arrived in Nashville for her new job with the Callahan family music company. Eden’s job is to corral the company’s star performers and get them involved in local charitable events to help draw attention to their causes. It’s a win-win for the company because they help the charities and it makes them look good for getting involved. Some artists are on board with whatever Eden wants, but one of Callahan’s biggest stars, Savannah (Alex Bowling), would rather focus on her own cancer charity than the one Eden suggests (and the charity itself is not too thrilled to be involved with the Callahans).
In the meantime, Eden moves into her new home (absurdly huge for a single occupant) and someone attempts to break in on her first night there. Worried for her safety, the police and Jax Callahan (Nick Puya) insist Eden stay at the Callahan estate, and things quickly heat up between Eden and Jax (he’d obviously been trying to put some moves on her from the second they met). Patriarch Burt assures Eden all will be fine, but daughter Lily is giving off some weird vibes, especially when her mother is brought up, with Eden getting the impression that she has passed away. A few nights later, Eden gets a call from Savannah, and by the time she arrives at her house, someone has stabbed Savannah, who lived long enough to want Eden that she is in danger. The killer is still there and attacks Eden, but she gets the knife and slashes the assailant across the abdomen, causing them to run off. As the Callahans begin acting more suspicious, and Eden discovers the truth about mother Victoria, she believes Savannah’s killer is Jax. But is she right, and will she survive to reveal the truth about Savannah to the world?
Murder in Nashville turns out to be a pretty serviceable thriller with a decent enough murder mystery to keep the audience guessing, not allowing the killer’s identity to be too obvious. The mystery and big reveal of the mother also works pretty well, so kudos to writer Ashley O’Neil for turning out a pretty solid story. Credit also goes to director Patricia Frontain for keeping the audience in the dark as much as Eden is. We see the events unfold through her eyes and are never too many steps ahead of her. Frontain also manages to get some good performances from the cast, particularly all of the suspects, never letting them overact to the point where you can clearly tell which one of them is the killer, so there is an element of surprise at the reveal (whether it’s plausible is a whole other question, but we’ll just accept it as is).
The cast is mostly good but the weak link is Zanotti. She gives Eden the same blank look of concern for almost the entire movie, rarely registering any real emotions. Puya gives Jax a wide range of emotions, giving off enough surprise at times to make the viewer not believe he’s the killer, while also giving just enough in his performance through facial expressions and line delivery to make us say ‘He did it’. Corbin Timbrook is also very good as Burt, portraying the man as someone who is both a company and family man, a man confident in his cooking skills, but a man still ensconced in the ‘Good Old Boys Club’ where men are men and women are property (even though he lets them believe they are on equal footing with him). Kate Dailey doesn’t get a lot to do as Lily except occasionally look concerned or deliver a cryptic comment. Alex Bowling isn’t around long enough to really show us who Savannah is, but she does manage to register some fear whenever the Callahans are mentioned. Ellen B. Williams is also very good as Victoria, and handles her storyline with a nice amount of sympathy.
Murder in Nashville is actually better than one might expect thanks to a good story and direction, and mostly decent performances from its cast. It’s one of those movies you might turn on and say ‘I’ll give it five minutes’ and before you know it the credits are rolling. It’s an effective, entertaining mystery with a pretty terrific payoff.
Murder in Nashville has a run time of 1 hour 27 minutes, and is rated TV-14.