The Wrong Child

... of my declining years gone - for good - all because I couldn't believe the reviewers who wrote about how awful it was. I have no real criticism about the actors (though the husband sounded more Antipodean than British to me), but - what was it about? The plot made absolutely no sense! It hurts that I sat through it to find out that the plot couldn't be and wouldn't be decipherable to a semi-sane adult. Avoid. Like. The. Plague. Except that that is what I should have done, and didn't. Please be warned.

Eleven years ago, an ugly family argument left a cute little blond boy traumatized. In the present day, fabulously wealthy 42-year-old Malibu mother Vivica A. Fox (as Renee) notices strange lights coming from the mansion next door. This turns out to be Robbie Davidson (as Andrew Haight), an attractive 19-year-old matching the young boy in the opening minutes. As we know from the ugly old incident, he was the son of the man who met an unfortunate end. His mother has died recently, of stomach cancer. But, we are left wondering where his real father is and what happened to the kid. Presently, creep-acting young Davidson turns up at Ms. Fox' luxurious estate claiming to be the long-lost son of her architect husband Gary Daniels (as Charles Callahan)...

In typical "Lifetime" TV movie fashion, Fox invites Davidson to move in with her family. Fox acts motherly, but Mr. Daniels is reluctant to play Davidson's daddy. His reluctance causes friction in the parental relationship. The family includes pretty 18-year-old Jackson family member Stevena (as Amy). Her character's father died in a car accident when she was eleven. That intriguing information is cast to the wind...

When she receives her birthday gift, Fox' earrings look like they're going rip her ear lobes off, but she recovers with some less weighty jewels. Former 1960s "Family Affair" TV series child actor Johnny Whitaker is good to see in a small part. Ricky Nelson's daughter Tracy runs one of Fox' shops. Director David DeCoteau does his best work with young Davidson. The Matthew Jason Walsh story is recycled from previous ones telecast on the Lifetime channel. "The Wrong Child" resembles "Are You My Daughter?" (2015) with a gender difference, among others. However, a later revelation conspicuously omits a typical relationship, which would have been (here) between characters of the same sex. Even worse, later revelations don't match up with story and performances.

** The Wrong Child (6/26/2016) David DeCoteau ~ Vivica A. Fox, Robbie Davidson, Gary Daniels, Stevana Jackson

I can imagine people not being keen on this but it has a certain unusual quality reminiscent of a Hitchcock in some ways. I really enjoyed it. I imagine it may become more popular in future years when someone is trawling through retro TV stuff.

It is what's expected of a mid afternoon movie. Not complex, hardly a storyline and awful acting.

The best bit for me was Andrew hiding cameras around the house to spy on the family. They were the size of house bricks !!

I don't think this counts as a spoiler alert, but the acting was so atrocious that it spoiled the entire movie! Like bad meat, it stinks and is impossible to swallow. I was so surprised by Vivica's performance that I wondered if LabCorp finally took it there and released a few human clones after all. Her other movies in the past were really good, so I really want to blame this performance on bad script writing. Some parts are just too ridiculous to properly act out, ya know. I mean, even Shirley MacLaine and Halle Berry couldn't have pulled off playing this role. It was just too bad and like some uncontrolled virus, spread from credits to credits- so bad that it somehow managed to infect even how the credits rolled. Even that was bad. Lol The other actors didn't fare so well, either. Especially the boy in question. As a potential bad guy, he failed. I can't truly say he was a bad guy, though. I felt sorry for him. Maybe it was the character itself or his acting abilities, but he came off more pathetic than evil. Still, I enjoyed it for some strange reason. I laughed. A lot. I normally laugh at movies on LMN and that's why I watch them. It was the best horrible movie I've seen in a while. Keep 'em coming!!!! LOL!!!!