Private investigator and former police detective Jack Ramsey (Michael Harris) is enjoying an affair with the local district attorney's wife, but when she is strangled not long after he has departed following a session of amorous activity, Ramsey is pegged as the primary suspect due to "clues" obviously planted at the murder scene in order to incriminate him, and additionally because of a zealous detective (Matt McCoy) who has personal reasons for disliking the former policeman. As Ramsey tries to clear his name, the sister (Carrie-Anne Moss) of the deceased shows up, and soon she and Jack begin their own affair that is complicated by subsequent homicides and by Jack's former police partner, performed by Brion James, ostensibly, despite private devils, the sole individual Ramsey can trust as additional evidence mounts against him despite entry of other suspects. Harris, a charismatic player who has created excellent roles, can do but little with a script that defeats as well the rest of the cast, hindered by a wandering plot that is clichéd and predictable from the film's opening while, despite helpful cutting, there remains an obligatory slow motion love scene, as well as embarrassing emoting from McCoy, Moss and James that is made unduly prominent because of faltering direction.
Review of The Soft Kill
