PBS - A Thief of Time [DIGITAL VIDEO DISC]

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i remember watching part of these third of hellerman mystery on PBS

We have watched all three of the PBS-produced productions based on Tony Hillerman's Leaphorn and Chee novels of the same name. Seldom are movie treatments as good as the books, so I automatically adjust my expectations and try to judge the movie on it's own merits. This is the second best of the three. In this movie, most of the characters are one dimensional and not well filled out, unlike the books where they are rich and vibrant. I lay the blame mainly on the screenwriter and the director. It's harder to pin anything on the actors but if I had to comment there, I would say Wes Studi, as Leaphorn, is out of his depth. The Leaphorn character is highly intelligent, a bit distracted and a bit urbane. Studi just doesn't carry it off. Probably the best performance in the movie is by Dawn Lewis, the seductive, redheaded Maxie. She owns the scenes she's. The writer tried to hard to follow the original book storyline and that resulted in confusion and a trunkation of plot in the movie, making it hard to follow and gave it an incomplete feeling. I could follow the plot because I had read the book. My wife constantly had to ask what was going on. After seeing the first movie, I tried hard to forget I had ever read the books and watch the movies as just a movie. In that context, I have to honestly say these are so-so productions. The vivid Southwestern country and insight into Native American culture takes this movie out of the "total waste of time" category. The cinematography is well above average but I will honestly say the money for the three PBS-produced movies was not well spent. Worth watching for free on a streaming channel or to buy the DVD used for a buck at the thrift store, but full pop... no way. At least thru WalMart I got the best possible price.