Drowning in Secrets

Just when we think we have seen the worst LMN movie yet, another candidate raises its lowly head. In this case, we wonder who did the casting. Some of the worst case of emoting (trying to be polite, better word is hamming) we have seen. Starting with the Mark Harmon wanna be police chief, moving on to the perfect haired Peyton (seemed like his first acting job ever,) the hack mayor, it's like watching a high school play...long before the dress rehearsal.

This movie also falls prey to a favorite Lifetime plot fail- a hospital (sometimes ICU) where it seems no one is on duty at night. People with bad intentions can come and go at will and medical staff only show up when the bad deed is already done. Unbelievable!

Hopefully the cause of all the hack stuff (love the mayor on the ground after the car wreck) was an extremely low budget which meant that they could not hire a good director or able actors.

Don't waste your time.

Glad Lifetime are finally making better quality films. The cast is better and the quality of the scripts have improved. Seems to be more thought put into their films now thankfully. Chelsea Vale is a stand out as is Christina DeRosa and Alec Nevin. If your bored this is a good option.

In real life the "mother" in this film is 4 years older than her "daughter" the main character. The woman playing Misha is far too old for this role, and I just couldn't get past it. Typically I can deal with the standard lifetime cliches, but less than a half hour in and I couldn't stand another moment.

Lots of good things going on in this film. This did start of a little slow but once it picked up the pace it got really interesting with lots of plot twists and unexpected surprises. I'd recommend this.

Vague, laughably bad with a ridiculously corny ending. It tries to set the mood of a small town with secrets with a lead character that hates coming home for reasons that they don't bother really telling us. She left her family behind and is now back bc her sister is missing. So now she must confront her demons to figure out what happened to Maya. Womp Womp. The potential was there, but the movie fell short. I was hoping for a vibe like the shows Bloodline, Deception, and Revenge, and this movie was none of those.

At a certain point, the movie starts dragging and you're going to wonder, "what is this even about?" Is it about a troubled business, a reckless son, or an affair that will cause a political scandal (spoiler: it's not)? Who cares? The characters spend too much time lurking around corners, whining, not looking for evidence of anything related to the three scenarios I mentioned, even though everything is supposedly wrapped in mystery. Who is really the one in trouble here? Misha (protag) or Maya (missing sister)? Misha is supposedly this well-loved person, yet she has no friends in this movie that are happy she's home. All of the friends are her sister's. No childhood best friend, no ex-boyfriend that is happy she's back, etc. We have no reason to care about this family.

The only reason I watched this was because of Cody from Baywatch and Jason London (although I get the twins confused even now). Both were wasted. The lead actress had no personality. The Peyton guy was channeling Cillian Murphy in the worst way. The business partner who started a relationship with his business partner's widow (Misha and Maya's mother) was weasel-like even without knowing if he was up to something.

There's an over-the-top car chase scene with a predictable ending, and since it involves characters in our story, how is it NEVER addressed? The police chief (I don't think he was a sheriff) should literally have known about it same day and it never factors into the events. The next time the decedent is mentioned, it's a slam designed to prop up the protagonist.

By the climax, if you're still watching, you will ask "all this for that?" Couldn't figure out what kind of prizes any of these people were. For me, this movie telegraphed who the villain/s was/were, and we were just waiting for their motivations to be revealed. It wasn't worth it.

One of the worst of 2022 so far. I'm trying to do better about too many spoilers in my reviews otherwise, I'd be more specific to save you some time.