Jack Vasen Decent story with a couple of minor flaws. 1) I was thinking most of the time that Reena and John were forgetting someone. 2) Obviously Bo had his reasons, but the movie never sold me on why Reena shouldn't have totally spurned Bo for being a creepy stalker much less fall in love with him. I really would have like to see more time spent on Reena and Bo falling in love. On the positive side, there was good suspense while you wondered when the next fire was going to spring up and how were they going to catch the arsonist.Alicia Witt was at times great. She does a great job as the woman in love and you envy the boyfriend. She plays a really likable person most of the time. Her voice over at the beginning was good, but for a second I was thinking "this woman is the pyro here". But there were a couple of times her character was contradictory and I didn't think she sold it as to why. For one thing she goes from being the tough no-fear cop to being the little girl who can't do a thing. Maybe it almost makes sense, but I didn't buy her presentation of it. If her flashbacks are incapacitating her that much, I see at least two problems. 1) Others would notice it and intervene. 2) She never should have passed her initial fire test. Another time was in the hospital when Hugh dies. She spent almost no time grieving. And the scene chasing Joe with the gun looked ridiculous and if I saw a real cop chasing someone like that, I would be real worried about the gun going off randomly. Scott Bacula was steady as the parental mentor and friend.

LizabethSTucker I think the movies might work better if you haven't read the books first. I'm not entirely displeased with the movies, particularly "Blue Smoke", but they are so limited in what they can do within the time constraints of the film. This was a complicated book, with the usual terrific characterizations. I think the weakest part of "Blue Smoke" was the lack of time to develop the family dynamics.Scott Bakula is wonderful in the part of the senior investigator. I've always loved him, but he shines in this part. Frankly, he's the guy I would go for.Witt does an adequate job as the heroine. Overall, I would say that the movie would make a good afternoon's entertainment, but you would be better served by getting the original book and diving in.Here's hoping this year's Nora Roberts selection of films will be even better.And if the Eve Dallas books are ever filmed by owner Mel Gibson, I hope they consider Mariska Hargarty in mind for the lead role.

gridoon2018 The somewhat unconventionally beautiful Alicia Witt gives a good performance as an arson investigator who, with the help of her older partner (Scott Bakula), tries to track down a mysterious arsonist who seems to target any person she loves for extinction. I'm not familiar with Nora Roberts' books; Witt is the main reason I decided to check this film out, and she does seem to have put a lot of effort into her part. The film is professionally made and acted all around, with realistic depictions of fire (though there is one computerized explosion that looks very fake). The problem is that the story does not contain any major twists, and there are a couple of points where it cheats the viewer (without going into heavy spoilers, I'm referring particularly to the circumstances of Josh's death). It's an OK way to spend 90 minutes, but don't expect much more than that. (**)

jenmcclave The first two adaptations (Angels Fall and Montana Sky) were disappointing for someone who read the books. I was actually pleased by Blue Smoke.They did a good job of adapting a complex book down to a short movie. The flashbacks were a great way of letting us understand Reena's history and her current emotional state. Of course, they changed some of the details, but those changes didn't bother me, and worked well for the movie. And I think they did a good job of casting for this one - Alicia Witt and Scott Bakula were very good.The only complaint I have is that due to the short time constraint, they were not able to really focus as much on the relationship with Bo, so the chemistry wasn't as strong as it could have been. Matthew Settle is very cute, but we didn't really get to know his character.That said, I enjoyed it.