Client Seduction

High-profile defense attorney Melissa Eco (Ally Sheedy) wants to change her image after her rich client gets away with rape. Her rebellious teen daughter Abby (Annie Clark) does not approve. Melissa takes on the case for homeless Greg Milles (Rhys Ward). He's accused of killing a girl during a home robbery. He blames the killing on his drug addicted partner Dennis Brunner (Erik Knudsen). As Melissa's investigating raises more questions, she finds Abby has fallen in with Greg's gang.

Ally Sheedy plays it way too innocent in the beginning. She's a harden lawyer and she shouldn't be so easily convinced by the guy. Rhys Ward looks way too guilty which adds to the unreality of Melissa's belief in her client. Erik Knudsen would work much better in that role. Everybody is so sketchy that it's unbelievable that Melissa doesn't notice. This needs to be a mystery where the audience gets shocked by Greg's guilt. Instead, none of this is realistic especially Melissa. An experienced defense lawyer wouldn't be like that unless she's the type who only defends the innocent which she is not. It's a lot of disbelief.

I shouldn't have expected much from this film after realizing that the director Penelope Buitenhuis body of work has been concentrated mainly on Lifetime TV movies and TV series. When a film company like Lifetime continually uses the same director there is a reason for it and that reason is that their chosen director Penelope Buitenhuis, can churn out one TV movie after another as I seemingly chew on one corn on the cob after another and they all look, smell and taste exactly the same.

There are a few scenes that take place between former Brat Pack star Ally Sheedy who plays a high class lawyer and a single mom named Melissa Eco and her daughter Abby played by Annie Clark who are in the middle of some heated conversations at home that the sound recording is similar to the effect of the echo that you frequently hear on daytime soap operas.

Don't waste your time. Boiling a cob of corn takes only two minutes and it tastes a lot better than this corny soap opera film made for a bored TV audience.

NOT WITH MY DAUGHTER/CLIENT SEDUCTION (2014 TV movie) 4.5 out of 10 stars Time to Read: 3 min

BASIC PLOT: Melissa Eco (Ally Sheedy) is a high powered attorney, who needs an image makeover. She's been defending the rich and powerful for so long, she's forgotten why she got into the law in the first place. Melissa decides she needs to get back to her roots, and find a client who really needs her help. Besides, defending someone pro-bono will look good in the papers.

Unfortunately for Melissa, the defendant she finds is not as innocent as he first appears. Greg Milles (Rhys Ward) has been charged with the murder of a socialite, but he swears it wasn't him. He claims it was his friend, Dennis Brunner (Erik Knudsen), and all he did was wait in the car. Melissa is suddenly thrust into a world she doesn't understand, where street kids cover for one another, and manipulate others, just to stay alive. What's worse, her teenage daughter, Abby (Annie Clark) has been snared by Greg's charms.

Melissa will have to imploy all her wits to uncover Greg's real motivations, and save her daughter from the clutches of a madman, but will it be enough?

WHAT WORKS: *RHYS WARD IS EXCELLENT AS GREG MILLES Rhys Ward is just the right amount of creepy, while also being convincing, just like a real sociopath. I never felt like I was watching an actor, just a successful con man.

*THERE ARE SOME GREAT ONE LINERS FROM GREG. When Melissa asks Greg if he provoked the cop into hitting him, he responds, "I'm poor, that's good enough for them." He seems to have just the right thing to say, right on the tip of his tongue. It works.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK: *SOME OF THE LEGAL MANEUVERING IS HARD TO BELIEVE Some of the things Melissa says in court are not very believable. And when Greg asks Melissa if she believes he didn't do it, she says that's her job. But that's not true, and most defense attorneys never even ask if their client did it or not. It's irrelevant, and not necessary information to provide the best defense. It's usually better if they don't know.

*THE DAUGHTER LOOKS WAY TOO OLD TO BE PLAYING SIXTEEN Annie Clark is not convincing as a teenager AT ALL! She was 22 when this was made, but she looks older (just the way she carries herself). It's not good casting. They also imply Greg is under 18 (they say he's being tried as an adult), but he's clearly not, and I don't know the point in saying otherwise. He could be just as sympathetic at 22 (Rhys Ward could get away with playing 22, as he was only 25 when this was filmed).

*THE DAUGHTER, ABBY, LIKED TOM (GREG'S FRIEND) but after she meets Greg, and he dismisses Tom (Stephen MacDonald) right in front of her, she suddenly switches to Greg. I know sociopaths are supposed to be charismatic, and all that, but they shouldn't have shown her so into Tom. It's confusing to the viewer, and clunky writing.

*THE MOTHER-DAUGHTER RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MELISSA & ABBY DOESN'T WORK Why is Abby living with her mother, if they hate each other, and there's a father in the picture? Why is their relationship, which was only strained before, coming to a head now? The negative progression feels forced, instead of unfolding in an organic way. It's too bad to, because otherwise, it's not a bad plotline. Also, your daughter commits a felony, and you let her keep her phone? Ummm... Yeah right.

*I'M SICK OF SEEING TV MOVIES USING TEENAGEHOOD AS AN EXCUSE FOR BEING UTTERLY STUPID Just because someone is in their teenage years, does not make them an imbecile. Abby would know better than to commit felonies, or hangout with criminals. Just because she's young, does not make her an idiot.

*WHY WOULD GREG WANT TO ANTAGONIZE MELISSA BY USING HER DAUGHTER? Wouldn't you want your lawyer working hard for you? It doesn't feel believable in any kind of real world way. Lawyers, like doctors, have a myriad of ways to hurt you if they have a mind to, ways you wouldn't even realize. It makes no sense for Greg to take on Melissa, by using her daughter.

*THIS MOVIE COMPLETELY FALLS APART AT THE END and as we all know, the ending is the only part that matters. It's too bad, because there's some quality acting here, but the storyline is completely preposterous, to the point of ridiculousness, even for a melodrama. I don't know what the writer Al Kratina was thinking when he wrote this ending.

*ALL MELISSA HAD TO DO WAS EMAIL HERSELF THE EVIDENCE ON GREG'S PHONE then all the rest of this is moot. You can't show her using a smartphone, and then not have her backup the incriminating evidence. It's ludicrous to the point of being insulting to the audience.

TO RECOMMEND, OR NOT TO RECOMMEND, THAT IS THE QUESTION: *This movie is so much better than the drek they are putting out today, it's hard not to want to give it a better rating. But the ending is a mess, so 4.5 is the best it gets. I would recommend this to fans of Rhys Ward, who is definitely the standout here. His performance makes the movie watchable, and even semi entertaining. If you like made-for-tv movies, there are worse ones out there. It's not terrible for a background time waster.

CLOSING NOTES: *This is a made-for-tv movie, please keep that in mind before you watch/rate it. TV movies have a much lower budget, and so your expectations should be adjusted.

*I have no connection to the film, or production in ANY way. This review was NOT written in full, or in part, by a bot. I am just an honest viewer, who wishes for more straight forward reviews (less trolls and fanboys), and better entertainment. Hope I helped you out.

This was not as bad as I thought it was going to be, after reading the review. If it didn't have Ally Sheedy's name on it then I would've given it a miss. I'm glad I didn't.

As with ALL movies, there are good and bad points; in this movie, the good outweigh the bad.

On the whole, the acting was pretty good. I thought Ally Sheedy did a passable job in the lead role. The scene where she argues with her daughter and breaks down crying, while the teenage Abby (portrayed by Annie Clark) just stares at her with disdain was grating, as Sheedy does get a little bit high pitched. However, I liked the fact that Sheedy's character, Melissa, is a blowhard in court but is not so strong in other situations. This makes for a more realistic development through the film.

It was also nice to see Erik Knudsen as a strung out druggie accused of murder. I first saw him in Jericho and thought he would be a talent to watch for.

There are times when the writing and direction slips but generally both are sound. I did see the twists coming, but after reading and watching so many thrillers, I'd be upset if I didn't.

This is worth a watch if you see it on telly, though I wouldn't recommend spending any money on it.

Body count: 2. One was the victim killed in the movie; the other one was me while was watching this thing. OK, that's not fair, I actually managed to survive this attempt of movie, it's quite excusable. But one more step of absurdity and I might as well be dead from watching it. This is lame TV movie at its clunkiest and I was only watching it because...of reasons unknown, guess you can say I'm fan of someone who has a role in it.

In terms of idea borough to the table it does not sound all that ridiculous: tired of defending guilty rich clients who always get away with murder because her defense is the best ever, attorney Melissa Eco (Ally Sheedy) decides to take her time and invest with poor innocent clients who never stand a chance in court. Pro-bono work, obviously, love it when those happen in the movies. Her big chance comes with Greg (Rhys Ward), a young man who is accused of a girl's murder along with his buddy (Erik Knudsen). Greg has it all: he's poor, lived under awful circumstances and to make things even better for the attorney, he's incredibly good-looking, a great image to sell to the jury. But the movie breaks all the suspense by presenting the guy doing the crime, so it's never really a plot twist - only to Melissa - when the angel turns out to be a devil and starts blackmailing his own lawyer. Whoa, you must think. Why? In what world this would benefit him? Well, when the lawyer's daughter is a rebellious teen that resents her mom for all the past wrong-doings and fate or poor writer's decisions but somehow that girl will meet this guy, whose plan is to claim innocence until the end and frame his friend for the crime. I guess you get the general picture from here.

Why "Client Seduction" fails? Not just because it's a passable film that doesn't create anything so brilliant. Above all, it's pure sloppy screen writing creating one cringe-worthy scene after another, everything is so hard to believe. My "favorite" unbelievable moments involve the mom's reaction whenever her daughter talks back at her. I know we live in some politically correct times but for the life of me, I just couldn't understand how come she never slapped that ungrateful girl. Not once. All she does is cry and cry, twist her face in a painful manner. Sure, some countries there's laws preventing parents of doing what I proposed but c'mon, that girl needed a wake up call instead of acting rebellious for nothing. She was right in judging the mom for what she did before while defending rich abusers, but the way she conflicts it's just wrong.

If the screenplay can afford to be garbage, then there's nothing in the world that can't prevent the actors of doing more wrong...but they do! One disastrous acting after another, it's a weird assembling of actors put together (Sheedy is just cry and scream while Ward doesn't scare with the bad boy vibe cause he's too pleasing for the eyes). But wait, there's one decent performance in the whole movie and it's the real reason why it wasn't so difficult to watch this thing. Kudos to Erik Knudsen. You know, Crash and the Boys in "Scott Pilgrim". I mean, I won't say he stole the show because there wasn't any show to be stolen from anyone here but his tormented, troubled and almost innocent character was engaging in every possible way. It's the only character in the movie that deserves some support from the audience. He was really good. He might be the reason why I'm not so critical of this thing. 4/10