Betrayed

Horrible, horrible movie with just as horrible acting. Stupid script and boring dialogue. Yet another one of these LMN silly teen ager pregnancy story with absolutely no purpose. Just finished watching another poor film called Double Daddy which almost made me throw up. It was that bad and the actors except for the grown-ups were again teeny boppers. I think the more mature actors worked hard not to laugh at this flick. But this one beats them all. I am also so sick at seeing these figgin' young actresses with hair. Hanging down and unruly. Mop heads I call them. I know this sadly is the rage. Too bad. Makes these so-called youngster look disheveled and unkempt. So what do we do review by the length of their hair? Plus I never heard of any of them before. Which says a lot. God help us if this is what we are teaching our young.

Get your hair cut, ladies. Look stylish and attractive. Not like witches.

Seems like the script was something an amateur would write. The characters where poorly developed. There were too many unexplained scenes. One scene was needlessly repeated. The choice of the actor who played Trent was an obvious mistake from the very beginning. There was absolutely no chemistry between Trent and Julie. Because of the poor choice in casting and lack of chemistry, his character was immediately unlikeable. The premise of the story was indeed interesting however poorly executed. Too bad. It could have been much better as a thriller if more effort had been put into the script, choice of cast, direction and editing. For that reason, I can't bring myself to rate it anything more than 3. I would have been tempted to rate it lower if not for the actress who played Julie; who in fact did a pretty good job considering that her character wasn't likable either and what she had to work with.

A beautiful blonde woman sobs while driving her car. Elsewhere, a gagged man appears to be drowning. As the credits play, we see they both have survived the tragedy. They drive somewhere...

Attractively pregnant Amanda Schull (as Julie) and her lover Charlie Hofheimer (as Trent) arrive in chilly Cape Cod, Massachusetts. They are waiting for Ms. Schull's divorce to become final. He wants to invest in a restaurant there, but she thinks it's too risky. The clandestine couple appear to have a private detective hanging around. This is sneaky James McCaffrey (as Sully). He's taking photographs, presumably for Schull's estranged husband Hal Ozsan (as Jonathan). All of them become involved in a twisted kidnapping and blackmail plot. The opening incident occurs later in the drama. It's the best part.

*** Betrayed (5/10/14) John Stimpson ~ Amanda Schull, Charlie Hofheimer, Hal Ozsan, James McCaffrey

Not sure why this was a movie. The plot could have been realized in a 45 minute tv episode of any of the current police dramas. It gains nothing by being stretched to fill 90 minutes.

The poor acting did nothing to elevate the weak, soap opera quality script. The camera work was soap opera level, too, with actors delivering monologues while facing a wall so we can see the face of the listener as they speak.

While none of the cast are talents, they are attractive people who appear to be giving it their all. A skilled director could have elicited a passable performance. Sadly, that is not the case here. Emotions turn on like a light switch and just as quickly turn off. The couple goes from happy to sad to excited to depressed to in love to questioning their relationship and back again in the course of five minutes.

A few stars for the Cape Cod outdoor shots. The rest doesn't deserve a star.

Three stars.

There are times when you turn on the TV and you've seen everything a thousand times. Well this is one of those movies you only watch in those situations. The acting is not the best with possible exception of the female lead. The script is also bland and it appears to have been shot on a shoestring budget. But for passing an hour and a half on a rainy afternoon it's OK