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source: Falling for a Killer

source: Falling for a Killer

There was some gripping suspense sustained for approximately three-quarters of "Her Fiancé's Double Life" (aka, "Falling for a Killer"). Then, in the homestretch, the film fell apart due to clumsy plotting and a series of implausible action scenes. Darcy Young is a successful prosecuting attorney, who senses something suspicious in the man going by the name of Thomas Schure, who is engaged to be married to Darcy's younger sister Brea. Darcy has learned from an associate that Thomas is likely a killer with multiple aliases. In the film's prologue, we observe Thomas pushing one of his wives down an elevator shaft. In a pivotal scene, Darcy made a nearly catastrophic blunder by accusing Thomas of murder in front of her entire family, thus handing him the knowledge that she knows his true identity. In the scenes that follow, it stretched credibility for Thomas to be firing gunshots that should have awakened the entire household. Then, the physical confrontations, which moved from room to room, were overtly choreographed and were not believable. Finally, the sadistic nature of Thomas's monologue to Darcy after he shot her was too long and too unpleasant. There were some well-chosen settings, especially the exterior of the Young's mansion. But the family members, including a seasoned attorney in the father, were inexplicably naive in their failure to recognize the danger signs of a psychopath.

Seriously, I am 60 years old and this was by FAR the worst movie I have ever seen....and I have suffered through a lot of movies. Enough lines yet? I know a lot about low budget filmmaking and I understand that this film is not necessarily the worst low-budget film ever made... but it comes very close. Here are my two main gripes: Who signs off on it's production? Are they proud of their work? Do they have any concept of shame? I never do reviews but felt this was worthy. There are no redeeming features for this show, thought I didn't make it through the full pilot so I may have missed one. Here's the main issues; The plot is weak and forced.

The first hour or so of this movie was pretty good- up until about the time of the duck dinner. We have heard a lot of killers go off on a tangential soliloquy about their reasoning for why they are doing what they are doing, but Thomas in this movie takes the cake. On and on and on he goes. Maybe he had to explain everything because the movie was disjointed. And then the poison that worked so well on the maid barely slowed Thomas down. At least it gave the mother a chance to throw in some really ridiculous one-liners. Finally, the last little segment introducing viewers to Thomas's brother- well, that was over the top and they had Darcy go all ga-ga over him. One can only pray that this was not a setup for a sequel.

We all know what we're getting when we watch a Lifetime movie but this one set a new low bar. I was hoping the killer would take out the dad within 60 secs of seeing him on screen. The man that plays the part of dad would have to be the worst actor EVER!! And it just went down hill from there. The whole family is obnoxious and "Tommy" could have done us a favour and killed them all. When you've got producers of a movie who are also the writer or director/actress you know you're in for some serious garbage, it's the only way it could get green lit. Don't waste your time people!!! HORRENDOUS!!!!

But I had to quit this movie. Not only was it slow-paced, but Darcy had a terrible attitude. She's the typical nose in the air, hates her family but visits them and sulks. She treats people poorly, judges them, but all of her decisions are right and justified. Not a fan of characters written this way and Lifetime does this a lot. The sister was a dingbat, but it was well acted bc I've seen the actress in other movies on LMN and Hallmark and she has some range. The scenes with the dad were so hammish and awkward. I got the Ivy League and safety school jokes, but that whole thing was too cringe. The whole family was weird lol. I ended up skipping a lot AND reading a play-by-play recap...I can't believe this movie did nothing more creative than internal rage and insurance money???? How in the world would he have gotten insurance money for Lindsay's character's death? At HIS office late at night, and down an elevator shaft? That would have been too suspicious, absence of cameras or not. And IMO, Lindsay's character as a director was an obvious cameo, so they should have had maybe her family or the family of another wife involved or tracking him trying to prove he did something to them. This story was too contained in this family to be believed. It would have given the feeling that his lies were always trailing him. Something I just thought of...it would have been more interesting if this movie was more like Hitchcock's Suspicion where Tom, I mean Thomas, was the Cary Grant character where you weren't quite sure if he was capable of murder. The opening scene and offing the waiter would have obviously blown that, but they could have gone for ambiguity in the wife's death and had the audience questioning what he was capable of. Lying about his name? Sure. Making up life details? Sure. But murder? It would have been more suspenseful to not be sure than to have his actions be so obvious and we're all just waiting for the climax where the movie turns into your basic Lifetime thriller with a bloviating villain. I agree with another contributor...the potential was there, but it fell way short. And that ending...They are really entertaining a sequel, huh? With Darcy being as dim as her sister? Taking off a star in anticipation for a crappy part 2.

"Her Fiance's Double Life" (that's the title under which I saw the movie) is a Lifetime dud. I watch Lifetime movies all of the time but even by Lifetime standards (you know what I mean) this movie is pretty bad. The cast is okay at best. Olivia Buckle does a nice job. Aubrey Reynolds is pretty dreamy looking but her performance is a little uneven. Jonathan Stoddard and Mike Gassaway both needed stronger direction. Gassaway's character is mostly a goofball who's out of place in this movie. The script is also pretty weak. The cast can only be expected to do so much with such material. Overall, I wish I skipped this weeks Lifetime movie.

This was the typical lifetime plot device where the protagonist doesn't trust her sister or daughter's fiancé, does a background check on them, turns out they have a different last name, tries to warn sister about her concerns but doesn't believe her, then fiancé devises a plan to kill their spouse, and kill anyone who gets in the way of their plan. Hmmm where have I seen that before? Except in this one, there was no second accomplice like in the last movie I watched that followed this plot point. And as soon as I heard the words "life insurance" I already knew where it was going. At least the friend from the hunting trip who had recognized Thomas from a court case wasn't killed or so much as injured, because he definitely would've been seen as a threat in the eyes of Thomas but he just laughs it off, followed by the cliché lines of "you must have me confused with someone else" and "I just have one of those faces". He does make up a scenario in his head where he does kill the friend, but he doesn't actually go through with it. Yet he had the guts to kill the innocent butler from the dinner party just for calling him dude instead of sir. SMH The attempted murder of the maid Christina, was unnecessary, especially considering that she was impaired and had hearing problems. But Thomas was unaware of that and poisons her with a syringe and is put into a coma as a result. Also, why did she have to be black?? She could've been any other race. Talk about pushing stereotypes. Why couldn't Thomas just delete the texts that Darcy's coworker Amanda sent to her phone instead of getting water all over it. And it was so stupid of Darcy to leave her phone on while sleeping, where the guy that she had done a background check on could just easily sneak in the room and destroy it, which is exactly what he did. Jonathan Stoddard's character was so over the top but in a good way (not a bad over the top like in most LT movies I've seen). The mom, dad and Brea were so stupid to not believe Darcy's claims about Thomas and the two previous marriages that he previously been in, thinking that she is just "being foolish". And some sister Brea is. Choosing someone she has only been with for a few months over her own sister. Ugh, that part infuriated me. Regarding the part with the guy at the end being Thomas's brother. It does look like a set up for a possible sequel, but I don't really see that happening. Lifetime movies rarely have sequels anyways. The last LTM to do this was 'Deceived by my MIL' followed by 'Mommy's Deadly Con Artist' and that was in 2021, almost two years ago! They were both released a week within each other too! One of the better films that Lindsay Hartley directed. The other being 'In Love with my Partner's Wife' which also had Jonathan Stoddard playing the villain. Two final notes: the song that played at the end of the film is the same song that played at the beginning of the 'Bound by Blackmail' movie from last year. The Lifetime Uncorked reviewer is incorrect about there only being two murders in the movie. There are actually three murders that Thomas commits, if you count the woman from his relationship before Marta, who he had drowned. And he confessed to it during his villainous monologue with Darcy after he shot her.