Harvey Keitel, always a movie actor’s movie actor, has jumped feet-first into TV (and into the water) with a new Lifetime movie based on a true story.
“Fatal Honeymoon,” airing Saturday night, re-examines the case of Tina Watson, a 26-year-old American from Alabama who drowned while scuba diving in 2003 in Queensland, Australia.
Thing is, Tina was on her honeymoon and she was diving with her husband, Gabe, a very experienced, certified life-saving diver — who apparently not only did nothing to save her but, according to witnesses, may have even killed her.
Keitel plays Tina’s dad, Tommy Thomas, a devoted family guy and very successful businessman. Tommy never got along with Gabe (Billy Miller) because Gabe never got along with Tina (Amber Clayton).
Domineering, and unmovable in his opinions, Gabe kept Tina on a short string and was snide and disrespectful to Tommy. Nonetheless, according to the movie, Tommy gave Gabe his blessing because Tina was so in love with him.
We see that Gabe insists that Tina share his diving obsession, even though she’s petrified of the ocean. His response? “I don’t want a wife who just wants to shop all day.”
So, after a lovely wedding, the couple takes off for Australia so he can go diving — and she can just shut up and dive with him. That’s when things get terrifying.
According to others on the dive, Tina was very reluctant to go, but Gabe insisted, and even degraded her openly. When Tina gets in trouble underwater — Gabe had insisted that she wear more weight than her body required — and couldn’t come up when she couldn’t breathe, other divers see Gabe by her side. They assume he’s helping her — but one witness swears he held Tina down.
Gabe’s version doesn’t match what witnesses saw, and he doesn’t even go onto the dive boat when they try to resuscitate his wife.
Tina’s devastated family, although wracked with grief, refuses to give up, and Tommy travels to Australia to pursue the truth with a detective on the case (Gary Sweet). After years, Gabe stands trial in Australia.
You will hate the real-life outcome, but will love the movie.
This is flat-out the best cast ever assembled for a true-crime TV movie.
Everyone is terrific, from Keitel to Clayton to Miller and Sweet. Don’t miss it.