Law & Order: Criminal Intent (TV Series) Folie a Deux (2009) User Reviews

Unique Twists On A Kidnapping

[ccthemovieman-1 · 8/10 · 30 June 2009]

Halfway through this episode I was thinking, "Gee, this is a kind of boring story." Then, a twist brought the story alive, and then another big twist made the whole program worthwhile.

Without giving too much away to spoil the story, it's a kidnapping story with an angle I've never heard of before, and I doubt anyone has......unless this really happened.

The sad thing is that it involves a mentally-disturbed mother and people who take advantage of her. All kinds of innocent people then suffer. Like a lot of these "Law and Order: Criminal Intent" stories, they have melancholy endings that leave a frown on your face, the kind "Eames" is good at showing.

There is good acting in here, as usual, led by Piper Perabo as "Calista Haslum" and Lynn Redgrave as "Aunt Emily."

Boy, I am old; I remember Miss Redgrave when she was a ravaging redhead in the '60s, back in her "Georgy Girl" days! Now she plays old grandma roles. It's good to see her again, though, and her acting is superb.

It's not death who holds thee, It's love

[Mrpalli77 · 8/10 · 6 October 2017]

A young couple was spending a night in a fancy hotel, waiting to meet the next day the guy's aunt. They were having dinner in the hotel dining room together with a single friend while a burglar was cleaning deposit boxes in several rooms. Noticing something wrong, the guy (a former teacher who has just quit school due to plagiarism issue) went upstairs and couldn't find his little girl in the crib. Detective believed this could be a kidnapping, because the aunt, who had few months to live due to a disease, is very rich and she is willing to do whatever it takes to get her great-niece back. The thief was a pro and hardly he could do such a thing. After catching the perpetrators, Goren wanted to dig in the couple's life, finding out in the process some unexpected truth.

I feel pity for the aunt (Lynn Redgrave, in her last performance). Everybody around try to blackmail her in order to get their hands on her assets, even the next to kin; no one has feeling for this old lady.

Madness shared by two

[TheLittleSongbird · 8/10 · 24 June 2021]

Initial memories of "Folie A Deux" were generally positive, one of those 'Law and Order: Criminal Intent', and even the 'Law and Order' franchise, episodes that left me unsure at first but won me over when things got going and the surprises came rolling in. On paper, it doesn't sound particularly exciting and sounds like your standard abduction story that has been seen many times in the franchise before and since and in other shows. Again though, there was potential for the execution to be better.

And the execution of the story in "Folie A Deux" is a lot better than it sounds in concept. My thoughts on the episode on first watch are pretty similar now, still think that it is a bit of a slow starter but also still think that it gets a lot better as it goes on and is a very good episode overall. Not as great as the previous Season 8 Goren and Eames outings, "Identity Crisis" being especially outstanding, but a very worthy episode for the duo and serves 'Criminal Intent' well.

Unlike the spectacular opening of the previous episode "Astoria Helen", "Folie A Deux" starts off in a fairly formulaic fashion and like a standard kidnapping story for the franchise. Not hard to figure out pretty much immediately that there was more to the case than it seems, which has been the case for a vast majority of this type of story the franchise did.

When however more is revealed and when the truth gradually emerges, a large part of me was genuinely shocked and it did hit hard. The truth is not easy to get one's head round and is more complicated plot-wise and psychology-wise (especially with Calista) than one expects. It is very clever and twisty and there is genuine tension.

Particularly evident in the classic Goren interrogation scene, especially Goren's ways of getting to the truth in a way true to character and the psychology of the responsible. The final scene is poignant. The acting is excellent, Vincent D'Onofrio and Kathryn Erbe can't be faulted. While Lynn Redgrave is touching and Piper Perabo (had no idea that she had that side to her) unhingedly chills and move. Actually did buy her character and that the weakest character was Andre, who was a bit too one-dimensional and the episode doesn't do an awful lot new with a type of character that has been seen a good deal in the franchise.

Script is intelligent and doesn't have any extraneous fat, while having enough room to breathe. The final portion doesn't get overwrought. Production values are slick and professional, not ever resorting to cheap or untested gimmicks or anything. The music is haunting in the right places and isn't constant or too loud, and the direction gives the drama urgency and breathing space.

Very good on the whole with many great things. 8/10.

A commonly "Uncommon" expression

[rbkjr · 8/10 · 20 September 2017]

When I looked up the name of this episode, "Folie a Deux", I was shocked to see how many titles actually came up on the search... So I had to refine the listings, to just show the titles of "TV episodes" only instead of "All listings" which is the normal default mode on the IMDb "search" setting. A portion of the Wikipedia definition states: French for "madness of two", or shared psychosis which, if you read my Personal Description, with having studied Latin in high school, is an obvious enough terminology to understand in English. But, I honestly don't recall hearing that expression or seeing it used in Articles or write-ups almost anywhere that I've looked and read over the course of my lifetime, which is now up to 56 years. I never cease to stop learning something, every time I watch one of the Criminal Intent episodes, which is why I am such a devoted fan of this show and continue to watch reruns, in syndication of old episodes, some of which I have never seen. Getting back to the Wikipedia definition... It continues to say "a psychiatric syndrome in which symptoms of a delusional belief and hallucinations are transmitted from one individual to another"... and that's the basis for the main premise of this particular episode. Several people "buy in" to a shared psychosis of kidnapping a little girl, to obtain the wealthy grandmother's money... and the psychosis gets worse, as the circumstances ratchet up, and the detectives get closer and closer to finding out why a little girl was kidnapped to start with. The episode itself, probably isn't one of the greatest I've watched in this series...But the drama and how they tie all the separate parts together are usually very satisfying. That's the case here, as well. The most appropriate thing to me about the title of the episode and the "shared Madness" of people around each other, is exactly how I view our political scene right now. So you can't get more current, appropriate timing than that...can you?!!

A Columbo like episode

[mgl-92037 · 8/10 · 17 February 2024]

This is a unique and captivating episode--even though we know very early on that there was no baby. The empty crib was clearly displayed before they went to dinner. And the title of the episode takes away any mystery. The motive of staying in the aunt's will is also obvious. So despite knowing the solution at the beginning, there's plenty of reason to watch until the end. Lynn Redgave gave a touching performance as a woman nearing the end of her life and discovering she has nothing left, that her money is worthless.

I appreciate villains with a difference. Luke Kirby's failed poet with a huge ego is nothing new, but the way his character flaws led to the destruction of his family is fascinating and horrifying at once.

Bad Poems about Fragile Flowers

[icaredor · 6/10 · 28 October 2009]

Interesting guest appearances and a surprising plot twist lift this seemingly pedestrian episode. Luke Kirby plays a talentless poet living on the 'patronage' of the wealthy family of his fragile wife (Piper Perabo). The couple report the kidnapping of their baby from a hotel room, and Goren and Eames investigate the disappearance. Lynn Redgrave, who plays the family matriarch, is worth watching, as usual, and it is fun to see Perabo and Kirby playing a married couple. Last time they appeared together they shared a very different relationship: She was a psychotic lesbian who impaled him on a sword for stealing her girlfriend. I'm glad they've managed to move past that.

Props r/t the child destroyed the show

[radarfirs7 · 7/10 · 30 March 2021]

Due to Working in Pediatrics (HM / RN) for over 10 years wondered where is the Child? The starting with the Carriage / Stroller of a very small child, with NO movement noted. The size of the Stroller is for an Infant or very young child both would be making movement even while asleep. Later the Pic at the "Swing Set" there was NO WAY that child would have been in that Stroller or Crib the child would have had feet sticking out in the Stroller, and would have to lay corner to corner to maybe fit in that crib. Just like Eames says they go to dinner and leave the child alone ... That Child monitor would have been useless for the Distance / and infrastructure of a Hotel between the Restaurant and the Hotel room. Add the "Father" overhears the "Robbery" discussion and his face shows a "Light Bulb" came on, not a "Fear" look. The Episode tries to do some "Twists" but anyone who has been around children the Stroller and no Movement as mom fixes the blankets should have been a red flag and these parents have no child. My problem was if they never had a child, but the Detectives keep harping that no one had seen the child in 6 months (Summer) fixed that, so Accident or parent killed child on purpose. Almost thought the "Poet Father" might have tried "Personal Tragedy" to be able to actually write his own Poems, but probably even that would have helped a "Con Man Poet". This is one of the Episodes I really Wished this Law & Order had the Court side of the Story, or at least be like the old Dragnet series with the info on what the court did with the guilty.

No con artist is that good

[bkoganbing · 4/10 · 18 December 2015]

Although this particular CI episode had a most interesting plot premise the rather unbelievable nature of one of the characters spoils it for the viewer. I could not wrap myself around the concept that Piper Perabo could be so self deluded.

When they go to stay at a swank hotel in Manhattan during a really well executed robbery of several guests their baby is reported kidnapped. Was in fact the robbery a cover for the kidnapping. The baby's grand aunt is Lynn Redgrave who is one stern Park Avenue society matron worth 75 million dollars and the infant is her heir.

Her nephew is Luke Kirby, married to Piper Perabo and he's a failed poet, but one great con artist. But the best of con artists couldn't con a mother.

There's also a ransom demand made and that gets solved quickly. It certainly is a tradition with kidnappings.

The end is a tragic story as Vincent D'Onofrio is at his interrogating best with Perabo. But her character is way too unreal.

Continuity problem with Goren's beard

[ncwood · 16 August 2014]

Goren's beard wanders between short and bushy throughout this episode. (Short in the squad room, bushy elsewhere. The bushy beard looks more fake than the basic scruffy version.) Wonder if the episode was filmed in two separate sessions, months apart.

A distraction, to be sure. And does the NYPD permit detectives (other than undercover types) to run around with Benjamin Harrison-like beards? The choice undermined verisimilitude.

By this time in the series' run, I was hoping to see Jeff Goldblum show up in the opening credits instead of Vincent D'Onofrio. Bobbie's character had run his course.