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Riddle
Starring Elisabeth Harnois, Val Kilmer, Diora Baird, Ryan Malgarini
Directed by John Hartman & Nicholas Mross



Holly Teller (Elisabeth Harnois) and her mentally challenged brother Nathan (Ryan Malgarini) live a simple lifestyle with their parents in a higher middle class neighborhood, and everything is going great - except that Nathan keeps getting picked on by Matt (Bryan Lillis) and Cameron (Ben Bledsoe).  The two boys lure Nathan away from school for a drive, and Nathan goes missing.

Three years later, Holly comes home from college and thinks she sees her brother with a mysterious man at a farmer's market, and follows them to the town of Riddle, where Sheriff Richards (Val Kilmer) doesn't seem to care anymore about the missing boy.

Distraught, Holly runs into the Sheriff's daughter, Amber (Diora Baird), who also went to school with Holly, and she brings her to Matt and Cameron, and together the four of them try to solve the mystery that everyone in the town seems to be hiding.  Soon a search for her lost brother turns into a town conspiracy that the townspeople would do anything - even kill - to protect.

It's nice seeing Val Kilmer is still getting such spectacular work.  He does such amazing character performances, no one could ever top him.  I'm shocked he wasn't nominated for an Oscar for this performance. 

By now I hope you know I'm being sarcastic.

Val Kilmer has fallen the way of actors like Cuba Gooding Jr., who have resigned themselves to starring in only B-rated crap that are direct-to-DVD for a reason.  Long gone are the glitz and the glamor of their early years, and now they're slowly fading into Hollywood obscurity, and not very well.

So back to this film.  Basically if you watched any Lifetime Original movie, you've seen this one.  I was hoping there would be a real "riddle" to the movie except for the name of the town, but alas it wasn't meant to be.  The story was so cut-and-dry it was like the director made a movie based on a paint-by-the-numbers thriller, with no shocks, surprises, or people you even care about.  Basically, this "riddle" is about as hard to understand as doing a Rubik's cube with all the blocks the same color.

Rating: D-



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