The Robber Bride

Based on the book by Margaret Atwood, The Robber Bride casts Shawn Doyle as John – a cop-turned-insurance-investigator who reluctantly agrees to look into the death of a mysterious femme fatale type named Zenia Arden (Mary-Louise Parker). John soon encounters three women whose past history with Zenia makes them plausible suspects for her murder, though it becomes clear that there’s much more to the story than John initially thought. The Robber Bride is essentially a run-of-the-mill television movie that’s elevated by some unusually superb acting, with Parker delivering a performance that’s as complex and intriguing as one might’ve expected. But in condensing Atwood’s novel into an approximately 90-minute production, there’s little doubt that screenwriter Tassie Cameron has omitted huge chunks of the source material – ensuring that certain aspects of the story can’t help but come off as confusing (something that’s particularly true of Zenia’s motives, which become increasingly muddled as the movie progresses). That the film transforms into a melodrama, complete with overwrought instances of dialogue, somewhere around its midsection surely doesn’t help matters, although it does seem apparent that such problems will have little impact on viewers familiar with Atwood’s novel.

**1/2 out of ****