Main Cast: Judy Davis, Jonathan Jackson, Chelcie Ross, Cynthia Stevenson, Jake M. Smith
Release Year: 2006
Plot
This true-crime biopic explores the life of mother-and-son grifters Sante and Kenny Kimes, from Kenny's childhood apprenticeship in early-'80s Honolulu to Sante's murder trial in late-'90s New York City. Fortyish Sante Kimes (Judy Davis) uses her looks and her brazen disregard for the law to acquire whatever she wants in life, from jewels to cars to large insurance settlements. Her most frequent accomplice in these endeavors? Son Kenny (former General Hospital actor Jonathan Jackson), who spends most of his childhood serving as a bit player, then later a co-star, in his mother's schemes. When a slavery -- yes, slavery -- conviction sends Sante to prison, Kenny enjoys a more or less normal adolescence with his wealthy father (Chelcie Ross), who has long refused to marry Sante. But upon her return from the big house, the now over-the-hill Sante re-enlists her son's assistance in her amoral activities. Eventually fingered for the murder of a wealthy Manhattan matron, Sante finds herself in court, where her son's testimony may well end her lifelong crime spree once and for all. Adapted by Randy Stone and Teena Booth from Jeanne King's book Dead End: The Crime Story of the Decade: Murder, Incest and High-Tech Thievery, A Little Thing Called Murder premiered January 23, 2006, on the Lifetime cable network. It was actually the second TV movie to explore the Kimes' story, following Mary Tyler Moore's turn in the 2001 CBS offering Like Mother, Like Son: The Strange Story of Sante and Kenny Kimes. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
Review
A gloriously atypical Lifetime TV movie, this true-crime biopic gives master thespian Judy Davis another chance (following The Reagans and Life With Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows) to overpower the small screen and go more than a little over the top. Davis' Sante Kimes is an amoral, delightfully tawdry monster who enslaves the help, enlists the criminal assistance of her school-aged son, and browbeats her common-law husband into enduring no end of bad behavior. That she's also a fraud, a thief, and eventually a conscience-free murderess -- well, at least she's true to character, and what a character she is. It would be unfair to say that Davis chews the scenery, for really, the entire film is just a platform for her ferocious performance. It's a testament to her chops that she makes such a true-life nightmare so much guilty fun to watch. By abandoning the moralistic, deadly serious tone of many such movies, director Richard Benjamin and screenwriters Randy Stone and Teena Booth inject A Little Thing Called Murder with a stylistic freshness more typical of smart indies than movies of the week. Glib, mean-spirited, and vicious in the best possible way, A Little Thing Called Murder serves as a corrective to all those other, overwrought docudramas. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
Gary Chalk - Jake; John Furey - Lt. Harold Evans; Ari Cohen - Matthew Weissman; Bill Meilen - Mel Sachs; Brent King - Kent Walker; Alexander Ludwig - Kenny age 11-12; Allison Hossack - Prosecutor Eleanor Hunt; Tiffany Knight - Journalist; Christine Willes - Loretta; Doris Chillcot - Irene Silverman; Karin Konoval - Judge; Alison Matthews - Regina Laughny; Ryan Robbins - Shawn Little; Alec Willows - Stan Patterson; Sean Campbell - Alan Katje; Jacqueline Ann Steuart - Linda Kazdin; David Lewis - Eric Holmgren; John Shaw - ADA Larry Cohen; Jerry Wasserman - Jack Reynolds; Malcolm Stewart - David Kazdin; Patricia Mayen-Salazar - Mirabel; Vanesa Tomasino - Maria; William Samples - Judge Baxter; Carmen Aguirre - Sante (1966); Marcy Goldberg - Kathleen Powell; Manoj Sood - Syed Bial Ahmed; Ryan Kennedy - Randy Bates; Maria Dimou - Lydia; Suzie Payne - Kate
Credit
Richard Benjamin - Director, Jacqueline Cambas - Editor, Randy Stone - Executive Producer, Gary A. Randall - Executive Producer, John Frizzell - Composer (Music Score), Franco DeCotiis - Production Designer, Robert McLachlan - Cinematographer, Fran Rosati - Producer, Randy Stone - Screenwriter, Teena Booth - Screenwriter, Jeanne King - Book Author
A Little Thing Called Murder is a 2006 drama film starring Judy Davis and Jonathan Jackson and directed by Richard Benjamin. This film made for television, by Stonemade Entertainment for Lifetime TV, was based on a true story, as told in the book Dead End by Jeanne King, which described the crimes of Sante Kimes and her son, Kenny.
A mother, Sante Kimes, and her son, Kenny, commit a series of con games across the country, culminating in the murder of two people. They are both sentenced to life in prison.
The film also examines their bizarre, mutually possessive relationship, hinting at the possibility of incest between them.
Judy Davis won the Best Actress in a Miniseries or a Motion Picture Made for Television in the 11th Golden Satellite Awards. Davis was also nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie in the Emmy Awards.
The film casting team was nominated for Best Movie of the Week Casting by the Casting Society of America in their 2006 Artios Awards.[1].
