“Double Life” is a well-made murder mystery with plenty of red herrings to keep viewers guessing. Its attempts to be both a female-bonding movie and a homicide story cause the film to fail to fully achieve its potential. The acting, however, is good, if not outstanding.

The picture begins with a blurry montage of pictures snapped in a photo booth. The action segues to a bar in which Jo (Javicia Leslie) is waiting tables and pouring drinks.

She observes a table where three men are engaged in conversations. One passes a small object to another in exchange for a cash payment.

Later Mark (Niall Matter), one of the men at the table, approaches Jo and makes a date with her after work. They go to her place for sex. Afterward they watch a news clip where Mark, who turns out to be an assistant District Attorney, announces that he is going to prosecute a coal company for negligence.

Mark leaves Jo and on the drive home calls his wife, Sharon (Pascale Hutton). While he is on the phone with her, a car comes up behind him and starts tailgating him. There are sounds of a collision and Mark’s phone goes dead.

Sharon dials 9-1-1 and nervously paces her home. We see that there is a nursery with no sign of a baby. A knock at the door reveals Detective Carmen Traxler (Carmen Moore). The detective informs Sharon that not only is her husband dead but she must come to the morgue to identify him since he was burned.

At the funeral, Jo secretly watches from a distance. Sharon is comforted by Mark’s co-worker, Larry (Vincent Gale), as well as Mark’s boss, DA Sheldon Roberts (Aaron Douglas) and his wife, Lisa (Kaaren de Zilva).

Jo is the caretaker for her biological mother Emily (BJ Harrison), who lives in a nursing-care facility. While there, Jo sees a news report where she discovers that Mark was married, a fact that she did not know.

Larry is visited at night by two thugs, Louis Strand (John Cassini) and his son Sonny (Alex Stines). They threaten Larry to hand over whatever Mark was given at the bar. Larry pleads ignorance and they leave him alone.

Jo goes to the cemetery to place flowers on Mark’s grave. There she meets Sharon, without Jo divulging her intimate relationship with Sharon’s late husband. They decide to get a drink.

While at Jo’s bar, they decide that their next move is to visit Ed Dux, who Jo saw give the item to Mark on the fateful night of his murder. Arriving at the Dux home, the front door has been broken open. They enter only to discover Dux is dead. They hear other noises and encounter Louis and Sonny. A fight ensues and ends with Jo shooting a gun at the Strand car as it races out of the driveway.

Jo and Sharon are detained as potential suspects in Dux’s homicide. They are released after talking with Detective Traxler, who tells them to butt out of the investigation.

Returning to Sharon’s home, they find it trashed. Sharon reveals the story that her and Mark’s baby only lived 6 hours. They leave to go to Jo’s after calling the police.

At Jo’s apartment, Sharon uses the bathroom. She finds photo booth pictures of Mark and Jo kissing and embracing. She storms out of the apartment. Jo finds the photos in the toilet and realizes that Sharon knows about their relationship. Now that they are on the outs, will they ever find Mark’s killer?

While “Double Life” is well-made, there is nothing new in the story of a good guy fighting an evil corporation who gets bumped off and has to have someone bring his killer to justice. One main weakness in the story is that we never hear from any of the victims of the supposed environmental contamination caused by the company. The organization is always a disembodied entity that the audience has no reason to care about.

There are several implausible items in the plot. One is that everyone who is on the public payroll live in palatial homes far beyond their income level. Another is the way that Jo and Sharon stumble onto crime scenes and make no effort not to contaminate the scene. Their fingerprints and moving of items is a major annoyance. The police are portrayed as not bumbling fools, but certainly as ineffective crime-solvers.

The relationship between Sharon and Jo is clearly meant to be a centerpiece of the movie. The problem is that we know so little of either character that we don’t care about their predicaments or troubles with each other. Once Jo is revealed to be Mark’s mistress, the annoying back-and-forth confrontational dialogue is just tiresome.

The inclusion of Jo’s biological mother, who is only in two scenes, is another weak point of the script. When Sharon shows up with Jo at the nursing-care facility, the scene is used to have the no-BS mother show Sharon that Jo is a mistress with a heart of gold. This episode seemed completely unnecessary to me.
The red herrings as to who killed Mark are effective, however, and keep you interested in the story. Intriguingly, you never do find out anything about why Mark committed adultery.

The nameless city where they all live seems to have been Vancouver as the credits indicated that it was shot in British Columbia. The cinematography is very nice. There are some intriguing framings of and choice of shots that enhance the story.

The acting is actually good, but certainly not worthy of any accolades. Everyone is hampered by the limitations of the story.

In general, this film reminded me of a made-for-TV movie. I would be interested to see how the movie was greenlit given the mundane, repetitive storyline.

I would not pay to see this picture in a theater. But it is adequate escapist entertainment on a streaming platform.

Two and a half out of 5 stars

Double Life is in Theaters and On Digital on May 5, 2023, and On Demand on May 19, 2023

A grieving widow learns from her late husband’s mistress that his death was no accident. The two women will form an unlikely alliance to uncover the truth behind his murder and unmask the man they both loved.

Starring: Javicia Leslie, Pascale Hutton, Vincent Gale
Directed by: Martin Wood
Story By: Mike Hurst
Screenplay By: Mike Hurst and Chris Sivertson