If you want to see this Lifetime film, its because you (1) Like Nora Roberts; and/or (2) Read Tribute by Nora Roberts. Don't waste your time or money. Nora Roberts is a superb storyteller, and the novel is fantastic. This adaptation is the worst, hands down, ever. Not only is the acting a joke, but there is no development of the characters. Of course there isn't time to do that in 90 minutes. If you hadn't read the book, you would be clueless as to details: such as what happened to Steve? Why was Mr. Hennessey in prison? Countless other details just, poof, missing and unexplained. I can only imagine Nora Roberts; disappointment; however, she was paid handsomely for the rights to the story, so on to the next. The only redeeming grace was the beautiful property portrayed as Janet's farm. Gorgeous. But it wasn't located in Virginia, as Nora Roberts set it, that's for sure. Virginia doesn't have moss in the trees - so it was obviously somewhere south of there. THIS FILE WAS BEYOND DISAPPOINTING. I wouldn't have given it one star, except there was no option to assign negative numbers. THE WORST, EVER.

I have been a big fan of Nora Roberts for many years. When I hear that some of her books were being turned into movies, I was very happy. I have seen the first four movies that had the same treatment and was expecting the same quality entertainment this time around.I was very happy with the other three movies in this set. Northern Lights, Midnight Bayou, and High Noon met and sometimes even exceeded my expectations. It was only with Tribute that they fell short. It mostly had to do with the casting of Brittany Murphy in the role of Cilla.In the book, Cilla is assertive, active, knowledgeable about all aspects of remodeling the house and physically capable of handling any part of the remodel. Ms. Murphy manages to pull off being assertive, active, and knowledgeable but she really misses on the physical aspect. Just watching her swing a sledge hammer makes me cringe. She swings it with little force and looks as if she's going to smash her foot at any moment. I am amazed that she didn't have an accident with the sledge while filming.All in all it was an okay movie but it's definitely my least favorite of the second four.

Tippi Hedren is in this movie so I was watching for her. I didn't know Tippi Hedren was going to be in the movie until after it started and I saw her name in the credits. I'm not actually a Tippi Hedren fan so I didn't expect I'd recognize her - because it's been 46 years since The Birds and when you've got 46 years between watching one movie to the next then you can expect there's going to be some changes. So I'm watching this movie trying to figure out who Tippi Hedren is. I know it's not the main character because she's young and Tippi's got to be, well, at least 46. The main character is this young girl who looks kind of like a duck. I don't mean to be rude but I don't know how better to describe the new Brittany Murphy look; which I do not like. It couldn't possibly be what Ms. Murphy wanted the day she when into her doctor's office and said, "Big lips please". Any doctor that would take that pretty little face and do what he did has to be a quack. So, to be honest I was having as hard of time recognizing Brittany as I was Tippi. It kind of ruined the movie for me, because I went in knowing it wasn't going to be a guy movie anyway, but then when I found that Brittany had gone all platypus I was really thinking, what's the use? Because the story is weak, the movie plods, and Brittany has duck lips.

Without Brittany Murphy, this film would probably be saccharin schmaltz. The story is kind of pedantic:Failed child star inherits a Virginia mansion from her grandmother, a two-time Oscar winner from the late 60s, early 70s, who died from an apparent suicide before Murphy's character was born.The plot includes some intrigues about her grandmother's secret affair with a mysterious married man....and she has to deal with bad feelings the townies have toward her family...and there's a lot of creaking and sneaking and lame scare tactics.All through this lame frame work of scenes...Brittany Murphy makes a silk purse out of a sows ear. She turns water into wine. She gives so much on screen with her realistic and edgy performance. I've watched this lame movie three times already, because Brittany Murphy is mesmerizing in this. She doesn't even have to say any lines, and you get what she's trying to communicate. Everything shows in her face and body language.Even when the killer is revealed, and the plot unravels into lame predictability...she still makes it work. I keep watching because I'm amazed that she makes this script sound organic, as though they weren't lines from a Lifetime Original Movie. She delivers as though she's actually thinking and feeling what is written on the page. I'm totally blown away...by Brittany Murphy...not by the film its self.