The Art of Murder (2018 Lifetime)

The Art of Murder (2018 Lifetime)

Cast: Mercer Boffey, William Patrick Coleman, Mira Furlan, Alexxis Lemire

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Synopsis (via Lifetime)

When art gallery assistant Kate Miller meets the heir to a run-down estate, she stumbles upon a previously undiscovered masterpiece. She finds herself thrust into the high-stakes auction world of priceless art. But those high-stakes turn deadly when the painting’s integrity and authenticity come into question. Kate and the gallery soon discover they’re caught in the middle of a million-dollar conspiracy. As the auction date closes in, Kate finds herself in mortal danger when a desperate stalker will stop at nothing to keep the truth from coming to light.

Thoughts

The movie begins with a woman tied up in a shipping crate. She is nailed in and left to die.

Cut to a woman named Kate. She is an assistant at an Art Gallery and wears short skirts and brings donuts for the staff every morning. It is working because her boss, Robert Frank, asks her out for drinks. Kate politely laughs it off and sets up for her big art gallery opening. She gets supplies from the basement, and it is the same place the woman was tied up and murdered.

The gallery opening goes well. Robert’s mother arrives in a fur coat and it a lot. Her name is Hely, and she negs Kate for her “farmhouse” dress. The artist, Mason Ramstead, is annoyed more people aren’t there and is even ruder than Hely. A handsome man named Daniel saves her from a tense conversation with the artist. They flirt, and it turns out he is an art broker looking for an appraisal.

Casey, a bitch art gallery staff member, leaves the party early and is murdered. Oh, well!

Kate visits Daniel’s garage and finds stolen photos from World War II. When she brings the pictures to Robert, she is looking for a big reaction. He is distracted because Casey didn’t come to work. At night they both visit Daniel’s collection and confirm they aren’t forgeries.

Detective Green arrives at the gallery to question Robert about the disappearance of Casey. The news rattles him. He is most likely responsible because Kate finds Robert and his mother lurking in the basement.

Daniel invites Kate over for wine and PIZZA WITH AVOCADO. (Which is disgusting.) Kate shames him for his pizza toppings and insists that Chicago has the best pizza. (Which is true. I do love a NY slice tho.) Robert shows up unannounced and catches them together. He warns Kate about fraternizing with clients. She ends things with Daniel before they really even get started. Daniel doesn’t take no for an answer and comes to Kate’s house to seduce her. It works because Daniel is hot.

While Kate is closing up the gallery, she finds a body in the basement. Detectives kind of interview her, and she mentions Robert. They bring Robert into custody, leaving his mother Hely to run the gallery. The art inspector comes to survey Daniel’s work and runs some tests. He will have the results within a week.

I’m not sure why, but Kate stops by Daniel’s house and finds evidence of his forging paintings. He catches her, but she manages to getaway. The results come back for the painting, and the authenticator confirms it is real.

Daniel celebrates, and Kate awkwardly confronts him about the paintings. She learns that the paintings weren’t his grandfather’s; he painted a lot of them. They kiss, and all is forgiven.

Back at the gallery, Kate learns that Robert is in foreclosure. Then, in the basement, she sees Daniel and the forgery guy talking about how they pulled off the whole thing. The timeline here is weird. Kate is kidnapped and thrown into the box. She is the woman at the beginning of the movie. Making Daniel is the man who hammers her in the box.

Daniel was hired by Robert’s father to forge the painting to sell it at auction and save the gallery from forclosure. As the auction is happening, Kate frees herself and hits the art appraiser with a sledgehammer. She takes out Daniel next, runs into the auction, screaming that it is a fake, and falling into Robert’s arms.

Kate holds a gallery opening for Daniel’s forgeries, even though she killed him with a sledgehammer.

Side Note

Minority Report: Detective Green

This movie looked outstanding. I liked the lighting and cinematography, but the script was lacking.

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Overall rating

🔪🔪 (2 Knives)

🍷🍷🍷 (3 glasses of wine required.)