The Familiar Stranger

Also known as "The Familiar Stranger."

Lifetimes type movie starring Margaret Colin.

A woman's husband commits suicide. Some years later, social Security wants $56,000 in survivor payments paid out to her children returned. That's because he's alive.

The wife soon learns he is living in another state under another name, and is very well liked and respected in his community. Needless to say, she is not too happy about this and is determined to find and confront him.

This is a very derivative story with some excellent acting. I saw Margaret Colin on stage - she has made several Lifetime movies, and I think she deserves better.

My TV guide said that was a thriller, now at the end i just knew it could not be a thriller. It isn't; it's drama. TV guide was wrong. ;-). Now at the end they said that this was based on a real story, with some dramatic and added fiction. My first thought was: What was a real and what was not? The way the man faked his death? The way he felt sorry for his family? The way she, the wife was afraid of bonding? I don't know. I liked the movie, it's a nice TV-movie. But it starts slow, you see how close the family is to a certain point and then he is gone. The children suddenly grow up and then dad turns out to be alive. OK, nice! Why did the judge or social security not found out that he was already married or so? That's the only thing that kinda bite me.

For overall this movie is a 6 out of 10. Not perfect, not bad but just nice.

I watched this yesterday not realizing it was made almost 25 years ago and it wasn't all that good. Acting was flat especially from the three main characters. The mother spoke almost entirely in a breathy sort of whisper no matter angry or happy or just doing okay and her facial expression never changed. Also if you consider the mother owed $60,000 in back social security payment for at the most 7-8 years (boys were like 11 and 13 when dad left and SS would end at age 18 for the youngest boy), $60,000 would have been around $700 per month - which was a lot of money back in the late '90's-early 2000's so I don't see why they would have been so horrifically poor especially with the mom working a job. And even considering the time frame, I don't know of any woman who would say, Oh, dear, hubby just embezzled $25,000 from his employer and somehow that's all my fault and then not do any due diligence to make sure it didn't happen again (which it did). The whole thing just fell kind of flat and fakey to me.

This is such a great movie with excellent performances. Margaret Colin is good in everything she does and this is no exception. I won't add spoilers, but suffice to say this story grips you from the very beginning. It's a true story. Jay O. Sanders plays the husband and man he is so good in the role. Really a gem.

I thought this was an interesting true story. Margaret Colin did an excellent job of "evolving" with the character. The husband sure was an S.O.B!! How someone could put their family through such torture is hard to understand. I hope he got his in the end in the real story.