La Double Vie de Samantha

Samantha Horton (Jennifer Love Hewitt) and Rex (Teddy Sears) are struggling facing foreclosure. Former beauty queen Samantha uses everything in her arsenal to keep afloat. Rex is a former star running back who can't even keep his construction job with his bum knee. Then she gets a job at a massage parlor in the next town, but she soon finds out that she could earn more if she does more.

It's a Lifetime movie of the week. It's not that I have any moral objection to the characters or the story. I just find it very boring. I guess some may find the subject matter titillating or controversial. It's not much of either. It just seems that the struggle for Samantha is mostly one of image. Maybe a short scene in the beginning showing the couple at the top of the world would be very helpful.

I went into this just looking to kill a couple of hours, but really it isn't bad for what it is. Yes, some of the Texas traits are stretched ("hotter than a fur coat in Marfa"), but not as much as most Texas movies and some of the people and scenery actually felt familiar. (I'm from Texas.)

I found the main character to be believable. She was not portrayed as a victim or as a demon, but as someone who made a bad decision in difficult times and then continued that bad decision due to her own flaws. Watching her when she feels guilt seems very real to me. Her mother was also a fully developed character and her friends and some of the other characters had some moving scenes. I thought it was well acted and well paced. Two of the last scenes were hard to believe and were quick reminders that this was a TV movie.

It's strong point is also its weak point. For an hour and a half film, it checks all the right boxes, a half decent plot, a somewhat decent ending, nothing really sticks out like a sore thumb. However, with the little time it has, some parts of the film felt too rushed, without enough time to really soak in the emotions of the characters, what they might have been going through and all.

This past summer I must say it was a pleasure to view this Lifetime original movie starring sweetheart and the cute Jennifer Love Hewitt. Over the years many movies have been made about prostitution and escorts this was a watch for the fact that it had Jennifer Love Hewitt in the role of a working girl which was a little uncommon since she takes mostly sweetheart and nice roles.

Anyway this film captures the current times of the recession well as many are struggling with these economic times. It's story was based on actual events it occurs in a small Texas town Jennifer Love Hewitt is Samantha Horton a young woman who's married with small children. And you guessed it tough times have come her husband is laid off and the mortgage payment and making ends meet each month becomes harder and harder. Eventually it's foreclosure time.

Then one day Samantha sees an ad advertising for work as a massage therapist, Samantha arrives at the establishment only to soon learn that these group of girls do a little more than massages. This is a private house of sex call it a massage parlor, in call service or a house of escorts it's pleasure for money. Samantha becomes a top notch girl earning plenty of money to save their house and she pays the bills and spends a lot on material things.

Yet as with pleasure their is a price to pay as soon guilt and shame is felt by Samantha it starts to break down her family life and her body takes a tired toll. Even though some of the finest and most well to do Texas men are clients eventually the playhouse of passion and erotic lust is busted and Samantha's days as a sex worker are over. Really this was a life wakeup call as Samantha had to take a fall from the lifestyle to rediscover family, love, and faith.

Really good TV movie that proves sex sells and that many live secret lifestyles and it shows many will go to desperate measures to make ends meet. Jennifer Love Hewitt is a delight to watch the scenes of her in sexy lingerie especially seeing her in a black bra was an eye candy treat and it was nice to see an appearance from Cybill Shepherd as Love Hewitt's mom. "The Client List" is one TV movie to watch.

Hewitt's character Sam makes passing nods to her "Christian Beliefs" whilst justifying her behavior as the only think she can do to help her family. Apparently in today's America helping your family means buying them stuff. Sam's love for her children barely extends beyond buying stuff for them which is probably where America is going wrong in the first place. Hewitt's performance center's around her unusual skills at satisfying her clients which apparently is the only thing her client's wives want to know in a later scene. Her husbands behavior is just as bizarre when he discovers what it is his wife is actually doing at her "Day Job". When did men start crying instead of doing what is more natural? The characters around Sam are just not that believable and even less so when Sam's mother says "it is partly my fault". When did a mother ever say that? The final punishment for Sam;s behavior and her redemption are both as ridiculous as the almost Disneyesque "Only for Mature viewers" plot line. if this is the 80's someone should pinch me so I can wake up. This has to have been written by someone who does not have a sex life.