It was the Screenplay's..... (SPOILER)
....FAULT!
Let me say that I admire Tim Reid and his attempt to make quality films. He is an inspiration. Clearly, the objective here was to take a page from films like Unfaithful, Fatal Attraction, etc. And it's always nice to see black characters that come from other than the 'hood/ghetto. Afterall, the black community is not a monolith, and there are a WIDE VARIETY of types/classes of people in our community. Attention Producers: WE'D LIKE TO SEE MORE OF THAT!
That said, the script was not well-executed and needed a re-write/polish. A lot of the dialogue was just plain silly and the dramatic set ups of scenes were too fraught with melodrama. When a film begins with the death of a character, which then impels another character into the descent of madness, it's really hard to care and get emotionally involved unless the right buttons are pushed. One way to get people to care about a character that dies quickly is to hire a big-named actress to do a cameo for that role, someone whose own persona brings the audience instant identification. Another is to do a series of short intimate scenes (not necessarily love scenes, just quick hits of their life and that they are in love and happy) with the characters so we get that they are in love and excited about the impending birth of their baby. The whole one location Amusement Park beginning with all that inane dialogue didn't do it for me. Sure it might have been cheaper, but cheaper doesn't make for a good filmmaking. Also, and this may seem like a small point, but it's not, was the costume choice of the pregnant wife at the start of the film. For the costume designer to put her in a BLACK top which basically hid her pregnant stomach, and for the director to okay that was not very smart. This is a character that we must bond with instantly and one of the ways to do that is to make sure we SEE that she is pregnant. It is a visual clue that helps us to have a visceral reaction when the accident occurs. Seeing a pregnant woman injured/killed is going invoke a strong audience response regardless of how well we know the character, which, in turn, will help us to understand Blair's character, empathize with him enough to get us involved with the story more.
Quick note: the hospital death scene at the beginning was poorly written and directed.
The characters were simply too flat. You build character not just through dialogue/ hearing them talk, but by constructing scenes that are multi-dimensional. It was more than half-way through the film before I realized that Debbi Morgan's character even had a job and then when she was finally at the office, the scene played like a scene from a movie, that she was just at a location waiting for the drama to unfold. Not as if she was really working. (Here the director is at fault as well.)
Some of the dialogue was simply laughable: Debbi Morgan says to her husband after she had passionate sex on the stairs with his friend: "He's your best friend!" Excuse me, but if I was having an affair with my husband's best friend I wouldn't have necessarily highlighted this point under any circumstances, even if the husband didn't know. It would make me feel even more creepy. Which in fact it made me feel and made me have less sympathy for the character. Or when she and Blair come in and the husband is pissed and she explains that they were "celebrating" the $$ offer from the Amusement Park accident which killed his wife. Again, poor choice of words. Maybe she says something more on the order of how painful it was for him after the visit to the lawyer and that she was helping him through a difficult moment. But 'celebrating?' And the writer had her say it twice. Unbelieveable. And women don't take asprin or any other unprescribed medication when they're pregnant. Do your homework writer... please!
Too much of the film was shot in medium. Again, with low-budget films it's hard to have multiple camera set-ups, as they are costly, but different camera angles really add more to the vibrance and suspense of a film. It started to look like a floating head movie and the people had no legs.
Still, Reid was blessed to have 2 of the top black male actors who are very skillful in their craft. Blair Underwood and Michael Beach are so under-rated and under-used. Both have a very commanding presence and always bring a truth to their roles. They also look good on screen, the camera loves them. Debbi Morgan as well has always been an actress who never had the opportunity to show all that she can do. She's a beautiful woman with a unique physical beauty that is very appealing. She also brings truth to every character she portrays.
Without these 3 actors, the movie would have completely failed.