The Quality Of Life ? A Dominic Da Vinci Movie
Nicholas Campbell, Michael Murphy, Mary Walsh
Venus Torzo, Brian Markinson
Directed by John Fawcett
CBC TV June 14th 2008 9:00 P.M.
The Quality of Life is a Da Vinci movie that picks up where hit TV shows Da Vinci’s Inquest and City Hall left off. Even if it is written with a ball peen pen this movie is pretty decent until ….. Warning: There is a spoiler alert at the end of this review.
Former coroner and now Vancouver Mayor Dominic Da Vinci goes to a party thrown by media mogul Charles Greenborne and leaves much before the very naughty after party begins. This is a good thing as there is a dead girl the next morning. It turns out though the good mayor has a secret of his own and the mayor’s conference he is hosting features a who’s who of suspects. Who killed the girl, who is going to fall, and will Da Vinci get caught in the repercussions? There is no question as to if the former coroner will try to solve this murder.
Lots of characters and background information need to be set up before the body gets cold you have to be a little patient with the beginning of this Da Vinci mystery. This gives comic actress Mary Walsh, here in a rare dramatic role, time to creep out the viewer. Walsh is superb as Katherine Greenborne and shows you do not need to do much to instantly create a character that gets the viewer interested. Enjoy it because after that she doesn’t get to do much.
The less than stellar writing begins with the scene that establishes Da Vinci is a really, really good guy: having him leap a tall building while rescuing an orphan would have been more subtle. Dominic Da Vinci’s first words to Jean Tellier, Greenborne’s right hand man and fixer, are “Nice to see you got back on your feet after that” so you know this is an unsavory character. There is also the repetition of why Greenborne is endorsing one guy and pushing hard for the mayor of Vancouver to do so too. As Da Vinci says, “I get the picture.” A couple of plot elements the viewer can see a truck drive through at the same time do not help.
This mystery TV movie manages to stay interesting. This says a lot about the cast and a little bit about the plot itself. Yes, you will groan a few times but you are not going to start surfing to see what else is on.
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The Quality of Life ends without an ending. The viewer knows whodunit but everything and I mean everything is left up in the air.