Torso

You would be hard pressed to identify this as a made-for-television movie. The cinematography and production design are superior to most theatrical features (angular and overhead camera shots, tight shots on Kathleen Robertson, period costuming and good sets). It really transports the viewer back to 1940's Ontario. They paid attention to the details and put serious money into creating a stylish stage on which Robertson turns in a truly fine performance.

She plays a young woman from a horribly abusive family; and what with the flashbacks she convincingly plays herself from about age 13 to age 26 (in fact the flashback to her at age 13 is the most convincing scene in the film). Under a cynical veneer is someone so scarred that she cannot really defend herself against two murder charges, but with the cool elliptical storytelling technique it is some time before the viewer understands the whole dynamic. The film is really about peeling back her protective layers. Instead of a traditional narrative about a character undergoing changes, what changes here is not the character but the viewer's perception of the character.

Robertson was born for this role. I have generally liked her in other stuff but have felt a bit uneasy-when she smiles it seems like she is conning me. This works against her in "good girl" roles ("Maniac Mansion" and "Splendor") but could actually work for her in "bad girl" roles. And it certainly does here where her character is as ambiguous as any you are likely to find.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

Just saw the Canadian film "Torso: The Evelyn Dick Story" on the Lifetime Channel and loved it. While I was watching it, I had little or no sense that I was watching a made-for-TV movie, so good were the sets, costumes, and production values. I was hooked from beginning to end, sucked in by the fascinating story of a 1940s Canadian murder case with which I was completely unfamiliar.

The always elegant Victor Garber, a native Canadian whose performance as ship's designer Thomas Andrews in "Titanic" was so memorable, is wonderful in "Torso: The Evelyn Dick Story" as the insightful Canadian attorney J.J. Robinette, who shouldered Evelyn Dick's cause when no one else would touch it and managed to save her life against all odds. Legendary Irish stage and screen veteran Brenda Fricker ("My Left Foot," "Veronica Guerin") turns in a chilling and masterful performance here as the lethal matriarch pimping out her daughter Evelyn to upper crust Canadians in 1940s Ontario.

The true revelation for me, however, is Kathleen Robertson as Evelyn Dick. I've had no real exposure to Robertson's work before seeing this film, but a perusal of her filmography indicates that she deserves a much better chance to shine than she's had in her previous films. She certainly does shine in this one, her stunning physical beauty by no means her only asset. She manages to understand and capture Evelyn Dick's slippery character on every conceivable level and imbues her with a poignant depth that inspires compassion and revulsion in equal measure.

Kathleen Robertson, incidentally, is a native of Hamilton, Ontario, where the woman she portrays in this film, Evelyn Dick, was brought to trial for murder 60 years ago in 1946/1947. Elizabeth Short, better known as the Black Dahlia, was discovered murdered in Los Angeles in January 1947 during the course of Evelyn Dick's trial(s). Since then, the mystery of who killed the Black Dahlia has seized the public's imagination worldwide, whereas the mystery of who killed Evelyn Dick's husband seems to have garnered much less publicity. Both cases, however, are equally fascinating, albeit for different reasons.

Despite its clumsy and thoroughly regrettable title, "Torso: The Evelyn Dick Story" has much to commend it. In addition to the film's impressive performances from Garber, Fricker, and Robertson, it displays keen devotion to exploring the domestic hell in which Evelyn Dick was raised and of which she was a product, implying that, if anyone "made" Evelyn Dick a "loose woman" or a murderer, it would have been those horrendous parents of hers.

The answer to who shot and dismembered Evelyn's hapless husband back in 1940s Canada -- Evelyn herself, one or both of her parents, one of her lovers, or some/all of them in collusion -- is still a mystery to me after seeing this film and inspires me to seek out the only book that seems to be available on the subject, "The Torso Murder: The Untold Story of Evelyn Dick" (2001). Its Canadian author, Brian Vall?e, appears to have been associated with a made-for-CTV documentary called "The Notorious Mrs. Dick," not to be confused with the feature-length film "Torso: The Evelyn Dick Story" reviewed here.

Can't wait to read the book. At least two of the real culprits in this case got clean away with murder, seems to me, and the worst of them never served a day in jail!

Set in 1940s Hamilton Ontario, I thought this flick did a great job of telling the tragic story of intruige surrounding the Evelyn Dick murder trial. I thought the acting, especially by Fricker, was very good and particularly enjoyed the period setting, lighting, and music.

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