This would have been one of those rarities: a halfway-decent Lifetime movie, if Rachel would have simply picked up the gun after she knocked out the villain Claire....and it wasn't just once that she had the chance to pick it up and get it away from the villain, but twice (or three times if you count the last time before she let her fall to her death).
It's just another of the many contrived Lifetime movie tropes that they use over and over to milk the suspense for all it's worth. Because if she had simply picked up the gun next to Claire after she knocked her down (and temporarily out) the first time, the movie would have been over. But they just can't let such a quick, easy, sensible ending like that happen, of course. So Claire had the gun right next to her to pick right up to chase Rachel with a SECOND time, and when Rachel got the best of her again, in the restroom, she left the gun lying next to her AGAIN. So Claire picked it up for the third time, and on and on....
One of the usual Lifetime tropes that wasn't used this time, which pleasantly surprised me, was the constant denial by everyone of the villain's guilt when suspicions were aroused in one of the intended victims. When Rachel went to Lindsey to tell her why she suspected Claire of manipulating things to make her look bad, Lindsey not only listened without blowing her off, but even allowed her 4 year old daughter to answer Rachel's questions. And when Rachel told Bill about it on the phone, he didn't waste any time condescending to her with lines such as, "you're imagining things", etc. So that's a plus in Lifetime's favor, and one of the reasons I gave it a 5 out of 10.
Overall, the acting was good, and yes, as a few others here have said, the mother-in-law played by Diane Robin was superb, just like she was as the mom-in-law in a past LMN movie where she was also killed by the villain. The storyline and dialogue were pretty good too, unlike most LMN tripe. And it was interesting to see Ashlyn Yennie play the good girl instead of the conniving villain this time.
So: Grade C / 5 out of 10.
It's just another of the many contrived Lifetime movie tropes that they use over and over to milk the suspense for all it's worth. Because if she had simply picked up the gun next to Claire after she knocked her down (and temporarily out) the first time, the movie would have been over. But they just can't let such a quick, easy, sensible ending like that happen, of course. So Claire had the gun right next to her to pick right up to chase Rachel with a SECOND time, and when Rachel got the best of her again, in the restroom, she left the gun lying next to her AGAIN. So Claire picked it up for the third time, and on and on....
One of the usual Lifetime tropes that wasn't used this time, which pleasantly surprised me, was the constant denial by everyone of the villain's guilt when suspicions were aroused in one of the intended victims. When Rachel went to Lindsey to tell her why she suspected Claire of manipulating things to make her look bad, Lindsey not only listened without blowing her off, but even allowed her 4 year old daughter to answer Rachel's questions. And when Rachel told Bill about it on the phone, he didn't waste any time condescending to her with lines such as, "you're imagining things", etc. So that's a plus in Lifetime's favor, and one of the reasons I gave it a 5 out of 10.
Overall, the acting was good, and yes, as a few others here have said, the mother-in-law played by Diane Robin was superb, just like she was as the mom-in-law in a past LMN movie where she was also killed by the villain. The storyline and dialogue were pretty good too, unlike most LMN tripe. And it was interesting to see Ashlyn Yennie play the good girl instead of the conniving villain this time.
So: Grade C / 5 out of 10.
