‘High Noon’: A Romance Suspense Adaptation

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Based on the titular best-selling novel this TV film premiered on Lifetime, before its eventual home video release. It’s a romantic suspense story that has a great cast, and a pretty good story, too.

High Noon (2009) Lifetime TV Film Review

As police cars swarm an active scene, snipers find their best position on the same scene. Walking right into the middle of all this hubbub is hostage negotiator Lt. Phoebe McNamara (Emilie de Ravin). She’s prepared to save the suicidal man, ready to end things because his wife left him. In the aftermath of a peaceful resolution, Phoebe meets man’s boss, handsome bar owner Duncan Swift (Ivan Sergei). Despite his offer to buy her a drink, she turns him down and returns home to her daughter and mother (Cybil Shepherd).

Soon mysterious happenings haunt Phoebe. A bad interaction with a co-worker and escalating events lead her to suspect him, but what if there’s someone out there with a vendetta against her?

In a kind of cluster over the course of three years or so, Lifetime adapted quite a few of Nora Robert’s books. With inspiration from the 1930s western (of the same name), this is actually entertaining, and has likable characters; some of who have just enough “sinister” to make them a believable suspect. There’s enough reasonably tense buildup, plus it keeps its audience invested in the mystery that surrounds Phoebe. The creepy happenings keep you on the edge of your seat, without crossing into that psycho territory as previous Robert’s stories have. Interrogations and police procedures play out well, and the actors portray this well.

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‘High Noon’: A Romance Suspense Adaptation. A review of the Lifetime adaptation High Noon (2009) with Emilie de Ravin (of 'Once Upon a Time'). #Review #NoraRoberts #Movies #Romance Share on X

Speaking of the actors, the acting is really good. Emilie de Ravin’s (Once Upon a Time) Phoebe is well cast in the role of negotiator while Ivan Sergei’s Duncan is a compassionate, understanding counter. Veteran Cybil Shepard is excellent; somehow she’s exactly the same as one remembers her on Moonlighting. Likewise, the young girl who plays Phoebe’s daughter is adorable, and the supporting cast is noteworthy also. To balance the “tense” moments, the cast helps lighten the mood with some cute moments like the “carnival” sequence.

This film interested me initially because the heroine is a hostage negotiator which reminds me of the novel by Dee Henderson called, The Negotiator.. One of those rare books that to this day is still a favorite. Though I haven’t read the High Noon novel, I thought the film a good guessing game mystery. If you’re a fan of this genre, High Noon is a solid 90-some minute film.

You can find High Noon (2009) on DVD.

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Content: There’s a racy scene that shows a couple undressing one another (against a wall, on the stairs) and partial nudity. There’s two later scenes of a couple lying in bed. We see them similarly later lying in bed. There’s some other crude comments/tense moments, and commonplace profanity. There’s some deaths and tense police interrogation scenes. The film is TV-14.