Lies My Sister Told Me

Good movie!

Good movie!

This would have been a really really good movie. Unfortunately it was ruined by a lousy ending. If this was not a Lifetime movie the ending would have been much much better. I won't give anything away, but there is a glaringly obvious loose end that is not addressed at the end. It is this unaddressed loose end that left me very very disappointed. So instead of a 7 or 8 star rating, it gets a 5 star for its poor ending. The acting overall, however, was very good and the general storyline was also very good. An improved remake of this movie would be very easy - especially if it has absolutely nothing to do with Lifetime!!!

"Lies My Sister Told Me" (a.k.a., "My Stolen Life") is a gripping mystery about twins whose lives have been filled with tragedy. One of the great scenes in the history of the cinema is the moment in "Chinatown" when Faye Dunaway's character reveals the hidden truth about the relationship she has with her daughter in the memorable line, "You're my daughter, my sister; my daughter, my sister; my daughter AND my sister!" A similar experience occurs in the climactic moment of this film that could be paraphrased as "You're my daughter, my niece; my daughter, my niece; my daughter AND my niece!" Jennifer has placed her sister Tracy in a mental institution after a severe mental breakdown following the deaths of her father and her husband. But years pass and Tracy has not recovered sufficiently to be released. During one of Jennifer's monthly visits, Tracy knocks her out with a hypodermic injection, switches clothes, then makes her exit from the hospital. When Tracy "impersonates" her sister, who has become a famous writer, things go well at first. But there is a fascinating ebb-and-flow in which, after charming her way through a book signing and flirting with her publisher, Tracy begins to revert to her unstable self. By contrast, in the asylum, Jennifer cannot convince the medical staff that she her sister has succeeded in switching their identities, and she would appear to be as unstable as her sister. The most fascinating moment of the film is the denouement in which one of the twins is back in the mental asylum. But through a clever choice in costuming, the filmmakers make it ambiguous which one of the sisters is institutionalized and which one is walking free. The poor daughter Layla has to be confused about the two women and must be thinking to her self, "My mother, my aunt; my mother, my aunt; my mother AND my aunt!"

I have watched 4 Lifetime movies this week, 2 got turned off, one was very good (Girl In The Basement) This one was watchable. It was still not great but the acting wasn't quite intollerable. Story somewhat unbelievable with a tiny twist at the end. Watchable if you have nothing else to watch, like really nothing else to watch. Daytime soap quality.

This movie has so many errors in the plot that it is completely unfeasible. Main actress tried her best but it's not enough because of the many mistakes in several scenes. The murder of two people was unsolved and the happy ending doesn't make any sense.

Enjoyable premise, although unlikely to really occur in real life - the idea of a mentally unwell woman stealing her own sister's identity, it does play well onscreen. The lead actress, Nicole Marie Johnson makes the film work playing 2 roles of both twins. She's very talented and I think she could be a lead in something bigger down the road. There are some massive plot holes that don't get resolved but besides that I did enjoy this movie (for a lifetime movie). The woman who plays the daughter also did a good job. 6/10.

Where to start? A '70s ABC After School Special has better acting and dialogue than this. The plot makes less sense than a Scooby Doo episode. (My apologies to Scooby fans.) And when the big reveal rolls around in the last act, you'll be wishing you'd spent the last 90 minutes scrubbing your bathroom instead of watching this tripe.

Lead actress Nicole Marie Johnson does a GREAT job playing twins! This was a well-written script. Reminded me of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane in parts which was a horror classic from the 60's. Perhaps, the writer watched it also to give a little inspiration. Anyway, the movie is definitely recommended!