In the Name of Love (1999– ) User Reviews

Brilliant, sexy, absorbing, 180-minute ecstasy.

[d021317c · 2 January 2004]

This mini-series, originally two 90-minute uninterrupted episodes, was presented in four parts on PBS. I found it absolutely thrilling! Tara Fitzgerald, who appears briefly as a teenager, and ten years later for the rest, is so gorgeous it hurts, and she acts brilliantly, as her role demands. (She's enticing in the nude, exciting in the sex scenes, young, mature, vulnerable, gutsy.) In fact, all the acting is convincing, as fans of her, Tim Dutton, Mark Strong, and British actors in general have come to expect. I didn't find the plot predictable in the least, right up to the very last minute. Tara's Zoe is thick-skinned in most situations and relations, except with Luke, for whom she has an understandable weakness. He's charming, sincere, and romantic (though his passion seems to border on obsession), and a great lover. But we can't be sure whether he and Zoe are equally mad, whether they might find enduring happiness together, or whether only something dreadful can resolve this plot's excruciating tensions.

-- Marshall Price of Miami, FL

So predictable I felt I had written the script

[khatcher-2 · 3/10 · 23 December 2001]

I am sure the British can find better ways of telling a story than this. Four episodes strung together in a near three and a half hour plus adverts ex-lover bent on not being ex mini-saga, was probably the only way in which I would have bothered watching. When Fitzgerald was not overacting she was overeacting, and neither of her two buddy boyfriends were able to keep the doings on course. As well as the fact that there are numerous editing flaws.

Way too long for the story it had to tell: you could easily snip an hour out and nobody would notice the difference. Only the last episode manages to save everything from being a disgrace, and as each episode starts with those brief recapacitating look-backs, maybe it would be a good idea if you did not even bother with the first three.

Rather than a thriller this TV film is barely suspenseful, with poor acting in the most part. The only good point was the photography, whether indoors or out in the woods surrounding what I think is north of London.