It certainly didn’t take the folks at Lifetime long to cash in on the jailhouse suicide of Philip Markoff, aka the Craigslist Killer.
Barely four months after the accused killer used a plastic bag and a makeshift shiv to end it all, the so-called “network for women” is breathlessly rushing the movie “the//craigslist.killer” to your living room. And it’s every bit as sleazy as you’d expect.
No gory detail is spared in the depictions of his alleged crimes or his Aug. 15 suicide at the Suffolk County Jail in Massachusetts. Beyond being a money-grabbing offense to the families involved, including Markoff’s, the movie shows little determination to explain the budding physician’s pathology beyond the well-publicized fact that Markoff needed money to feed his gambling habit. And the best way to get that cash, we’re told, was by robbing sex-trade workers because of their reluctance to go to the police.
The movie, as to be expected, fudges some of the facts, most notably the suggestion that Markoff (blankly portrayed by journeyman actor Jake McDorman) and his fiancée, Megan McAllister (“24’s” Agnes Bruckner), met while volunteering at Boston University Medical Center –– in reality, they met while both were students in Albany, N.Y.
The locations are also a distraction, with UCLA playing the role of Boston University and a vintage, urban high-rise filling in for the ultra-modern and somewhat secluded apartment complex where Markoff and McAllister resided at the time of his arrest in April 2009.
Not missed are the disturbing tidbits, like the pistol Markoff allegedly kept inside a hollowed-out copy of “Gray’s Anatomy,” and the 16 pairs of panties (presumably belonging to his victims) he kept hidden under the mattress of the same bed he shared with McAllister.
Waiting to seize the mounting evidence is a slumming William Baldwin, playing the case’s chief homicide detective. Like just about every other actor in the movie, Baldwin exerts little effort to flesh out a waxen character. At least he displays a semblance of a personality.
The same cannot be said for the beyond-bland McDorman and Bruckner, who spend most of the movie making moon-eyes, as director Stephen Kay and writers Donald Martin and Stephen Tolkin (adapting the book “A Date With Death” by Boston reporter Michele McPhee) hammer home the point that Markoff and McAllister seemed to be enjoying a storybook romance.
They meet cute, decide to shack up, get engaged and meet the parents –– all of it as dull as it sounds.
And neither the actors nor Kay lift a finger to lend it subtext or meaning. It’s nothing more than a recounting, which is interesting only if you haven’t read a word about the case.
And considering how Markoff dominated the airwaves for weeks in the spring of 2009, who doesn’t already know all the details? At least those scenes don’t make you squirm the way the depictions of the actual crimes do.
All three of the attacks Markoff was accused of –– the murder and robbery of 26-year-old masseuse Julissa Brisman at the Boston Marriott Copley Place; the robbery of 29-year-old masseuse Trisha Leffler at the Westin Copley Place; and the attempted robbery and assault on an exotic dancer in Warwick, R.I. –– are graphically re-enacted for maximum salaciousness.
I don’t mean to sound like a prude, but without meaning or context, those moments border on exploitation, as does the entire movie, which is clearly motivated by ratings more than any attempts to explain Markoff’s alleged crimes.
The//craigslist.killer Cast includes Jake McDorman, Agnes Bruckner and William Baldwin. Directed by Stephen Kay. Re-airing on Saturday, Jan. 8 at 9 p.m. and Sunday, Jan. 9 at 7 p.m.
Barely four months after the accused killer used a plastic bag and a makeshift shiv to end it all, the so-called “network for women” is breathlessly rushing the movie “the//craigslist.killer” to your living room. And it’s every bit as sleazy as you’d expect.
No gory detail is spared in the depictions of his alleged crimes or his Aug. 15 suicide at the Suffolk County Jail in Massachusetts. Beyond being a money-grabbing offense to the families involved, including Markoff’s, the movie shows little determination to explain the budding physician’s pathology beyond the well-publicized fact that Markoff needed money to feed his gambling habit. And the best way to get that cash, we’re told, was by robbing sex-trade workers because of their reluctance to go to the police.
The movie, as to be expected, fudges some of the facts, most notably the suggestion that Markoff (blankly portrayed by journeyman actor Jake McDorman) and his fiancée, Megan McAllister (“24’s” Agnes Bruckner), met while volunteering at Boston University Medical Center –– in reality, they met while both were students in Albany, N.Y.
The locations are also a distraction, with UCLA playing the role of Boston University and a vintage, urban high-rise filling in for the ultra-modern and somewhat secluded apartment complex where Markoff and McAllister resided at the time of his arrest in April 2009.
Not missed are the disturbing tidbits, like the pistol Markoff allegedly kept inside a hollowed-out copy of “Gray’s Anatomy,” and the 16 pairs of panties (presumably belonging to his victims) he kept hidden under the mattress of the same bed he shared with McAllister.
Waiting to seize the mounting evidence is a slumming William Baldwin, playing the case’s chief homicide detective. Like just about every other actor in the movie, Baldwin exerts little effort to flesh out a waxen character. At least he displays a semblance of a personality.
The same cannot be said for the beyond-bland McDorman and Bruckner, who spend most of the movie making moon-eyes, as director Stephen Kay and writers Donald Martin and Stephen Tolkin (adapting the book “A Date With Death” by Boston reporter Michele McPhee) hammer home the point that Markoff and McAllister seemed to be enjoying a storybook romance.
They meet cute, decide to shack up, get engaged and meet the parents –– all of it as dull as it sounds.
And neither the actors nor Kay lift a finger to lend it subtext or meaning. It’s nothing more than a recounting, which is interesting only if you haven’t read a word about the case.
And considering how Markoff dominated the airwaves for weeks in the spring of 2009, who doesn’t already know all the details? At least those scenes don’t make you squirm the way the depictions of the actual crimes do.
All three of the attacks Markoff was accused of –– the murder and robbery of 26-year-old masseuse Julissa Brisman at the Boston Marriott Copley Place; the robbery of 29-year-old masseuse Trisha Leffler at the Westin Copley Place; and the attempted robbery and assault on an exotic dancer in Warwick, R.I. –– are graphically re-enacted for maximum salaciousness.
I don’t mean to sound like a prude, but without meaning or context, those moments border on exploitation, as does the entire movie, which is clearly motivated by ratings more than any attempts to explain Markoff’s alleged crimes.
The//craigslist.killer Cast includes Jake McDorman, Agnes Bruckner and William Baldwin. Directed by Stephen Kay. Re-airing on Saturday, Jan. 8 at 9 p.m. and Sunday, Jan. 9 at 7 p.m.
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