This movie was as entertaining as most other lifetime movies. I usually just put them on for background content to relax, however many scenes had me scratching my head. Still not sure why that dude was always spying behind trees but seemed to disappear whenever things popped off. Also not sure why if you're trying to run away from your crazy husband that you would feel the need to pack an entire bag. Just gtfo and return with the police.
6 Reviews
really ?
linda-plant227 July 2019
Seen over 65 Lifetime movies.....this is 65/65
Carriexoc24 April 2019
Mmhh, where did I see this movie before?
Stanley3918 March 2017
Warning: Spoilers
Heroine young student is seduced by handsome professor. Loser ex- boyfriend kid and female best friend snoop on them. Heroine and professor are caught red handed and he is fired, and she elopes with him. All very romantic. They move into cabin with nearby neighbors who all know about the professor's dark past, two previous wives mysteriously disappeared. Hey, dude, why not move into a cabin on the other side of town instead?
Sounds familiar? Sure, because it is one of the five or so standard plots for Lifetime movies. Anything new in this one? No, not really. Heroine finally confronts hubby and he reveals all. Physical fight ensues. The young, small thin heroine knocks out the strong, fit, angry husband four times. Yes, four times! And in the last one she physically throws him off a bridge to his death. Really?
I worry about our young daughters who watch these movies and become convinced that they can overpower and kill strong, burly angry men in real life.
Sounds familiar? Sure, because it is one of the five or so standard plots for Lifetime movies. Anything new in this one? No, not really. Heroine finally confronts hubby and he reveals all. Physical fight ensues. The young, small thin heroine knocks out the strong, fit, angry husband four times. Yes, four times! And in the last one she physically throws him off a bridge to his death. Really?
I worry about our young daughters who watch these movies and become convinced that they can overpower and kill strong, burly angry men in real life.
More sophisticated than the Lifetime norm
mgconlan-119 March 2017
Warning: Spoilers
Lifetime did the director (David DeCoteau) and writers (Eve Holdway and Taj Nagaoka) of "Deadly Lessons" no favors by scheduling the "world premiere" of their movie right after the "world premiere" of "Infidelity in Suburbia" because the juxtaposition of the two heightened their formula similarities, when "Deadly Lessons" was actually a much finer, more moving and more entertaining piece of work. This time the damsel who unbeknownst to her has just sent distress an engraved invitation is a college student named Lisa (Christie Burson), a third-year undergraduate with ambitions to be a doctor, and in the opening scene she's with her friends Tiffany (Sammi Barber) and Patrick (James Drew Dean — obviously he uses the middle name because just "James Dean" was rather famously taken over 60 years ago; he's nowhere near as hot and sexy as his namesake but he's easy enough on the eyes) attending a class in ethics being taught by Michael Harris (Ryan Scott Greene). Michael is a younger version of the tall, lanky, sandy-haired types Lifetime generally likes for their middle-aged leading men — usually as the husband the heroine is being sorely tempted to stray from — and for some reason he has to hold his lecture class outside on the campus lawn. (Is this university — an unnamed college in the Pacific Northwest so it can be "played" by locations in British Columbia, Canada — that crowded that he's leading what amounts to an overflow class?) Michael is giving Lisa a hard time in class and, when the bell rings, he rather peremptorily announces to her that he expects her to meet him in his office immediately. We're expecting that he's going to hit on her, perhaps blackmailing her into having sex with him in return for a better grade, but — surprise!— as soon as they get into the office and close the door, they start sucking face. They're already lovers, and what's more, she's as happy about that as he is. Only Tiffany and Patrick are spying on the lovebirds and use their smartphones to catch them being affectionate at Michael's home that night — and they report him to the dean (Cedric De Souza).
The dean immediately asks Michael to resign, but promises him a good recommendation so he can still get a job somewhere else in academe, and he says Lisa can continue at the college and it won't go on her record that she slept with a professor. No way, says Lisa: where my man goes, I go — even though that means losing the tuition she already paid for that semester, losing her chance to continue in college and losing her relationship with her mother, who announces to her that if she does such a dumb thing as sacrifice her education and her ambitions for some guy, mom wants nothing to do with her anymore. Michael and Lisa get married at city hall and move to Seattle, where he's landed another teaching gig and they rent a house by a lake with a spectacular view. Lisa gets invited to a faculty barbecue and is asked by the host to bring her husband, only he begs off going and when she shows up, someone accosts her as "Wendy," and she has no idea who that is. It turns out Wendy is the name of Michael's former girlfriend, who (supposedly) committed suicide on the eve of their marriage — though of course we suspect Michael murdered her — and Lisa is already the spitting image of her. The resemblance becomes even closer when Michael buys Lisa a frilly off-white dress and tells her to wear it at all times when they're home alone together — and later on Lisa finds a photo of Wendy wearing an identical dress. There's also a sequence in which we see an old wooden trunk in Michael's and Lisa's hallway, and we have no idea what's in there but we know from the sinister music we hear when it's shown on screen that there's something incredibly evil about it . . .
Though obviously drawing on the same cliché bank as "Infidelity in Suburbia," Deadly Lessons is a far more powerful and moving piece of work: Michael is a genuinely conflicted character, far more than the cardboard villain of "Infidelity in Suburbia," and as the film progressed I found myself reminded of similar movies in the 1940's in which naïve young women found themselves married to mysterious men with sinister secrets: Alfred Hitchcock's "Suspicion," George Cukor's "Gaslight," Max Ophuls' "Caught." I'm not for a moment suggesting that David DeCoteau is in Hitchcock's, Cukor's or Ophuls' league as a director, but he's working with a script far more sophisticated than the Lifetime norm, with more complex characterizations in both the lead roles, and he's alive to its complexities and fully realizes them on screen despite some bits in the movie that tend towards the usual Lifetime sillinesses. On its own "Deadly Lessons" is a quite impressive movie within the limits of the Lifetime formula, and though showing it right after "Infidelity in Suburbia" made the films look too similar, it also showed how much better DeCoteau, Holdway and Nagaoka did their jobs than David Winning and Christie Will did!
The dean immediately asks Michael to resign, but promises him a good recommendation so he can still get a job somewhere else in academe, and he says Lisa can continue at the college and it won't go on her record that she slept with a professor. No way, says Lisa: where my man goes, I go — even though that means losing the tuition she already paid for that semester, losing her chance to continue in college and losing her relationship with her mother, who announces to her that if she does such a dumb thing as sacrifice her education and her ambitions for some guy, mom wants nothing to do with her anymore. Michael and Lisa get married at city hall and move to Seattle, where he's landed another teaching gig and they rent a house by a lake with a spectacular view. Lisa gets invited to a faculty barbecue and is asked by the host to bring her husband, only he begs off going and when she shows up, someone accosts her as "Wendy," and she has no idea who that is. It turns out Wendy is the name of Michael's former girlfriend, who (supposedly) committed suicide on the eve of their marriage — though of course we suspect Michael murdered her — and Lisa is already the spitting image of her. The resemblance becomes even closer when Michael buys Lisa a frilly off-white dress and tells her to wear it at all times when they're home alone together — and later on Lisa finds a photo of Wendy wearing an identical dress. There's also a sequence in which we see an old wooden trunk in Michael's and Lisa's hallway, and we have no idea what's in there but we know from the sinister music we hear when it's shown on screen that there's something incredibly evil about it . . .
Though obviously drawing on the same cliché bank as "Infidelity in Suburbia," Deadly Lessons is a far more powerful and moving piece of work: Michael is a genuinely conflicted character, far more than the cardboard villain of "Infidelity in Suburbia," and as the film progressed I found myself reminded of similar movies in the 1940's in which naïve young women found themselves married to mysterious men with sinister secrets: Alfred Hitchcock's "Suspicion," George Cukor's "Gaslight," Max Ophuls' "Caught." I'm not for a moment suggesting that David DeCoteau is in Hitchcock's, Cukor's or Ophuls' league as a director, but he's working with a script far more sophisticated than the Lifetime norm, with more complex characterizations in both the lead roles, and he's alive to its complexities and fully realizes them on screen despite some bits in the movie that tend towards the usual Lifetime sillinesses. On its own "Deadly Lessons" is a quite impressive movie within the limits of the Lifetime formula, and though showing it right after "Infidelity in Suburbia" made the films look too similar, it also showed how much better DeCoteau, Holdway and Nagaoka did their jobs than David Winning and Christie Will did!
"All Men Have Secrets"
lavatch31 October 2019
Warning: Spoilers
The film's title "Deadly Lessons" could also be "Psycho Stalker Boy." The problem is that there are multiple candidates for that title. First, there is Lisa's college friend Patrick, who always seems to be lurking in the background spying on her from behind a tree. Then, there is Dr. Michael Harris, a philosophy instructor, who has wooed and married Lisa, then reverts to his default mode as an angry, possessive, and violent man, withholding from her the secrets about his first marriage and a subsequent engagement that had untoward results for the women.
By the midpoint of the film, there is a clear and present danger for Lisa. But it remains fuzzy as to which one of the men poses the greater threat. Is it Patrick? Is it Michael? Or, is it both"?
The film has an idyllic setting in picturesque northern Washington. Dr. Harris has taken a new position at a college in Olympia, and he and Lisa move into a secluded manor house, which rapidly becomes a cesspool of dysfunction and harassment for Michael's "little Lisa."
The actress playing the role of Lisa was terrific in carrying the picture. Her character had given up her schooling, her friends, and had even severed ties with her mother to be Michael. Yet it began to dawn on her that she had married a monster. After Michael smashed Lisa's cell phone in a fit of rage, it stretched credibility for Lisa to remain the relationship. The actress was excellent in rising above the script and the situation to make the drama as convincing as it was.
As for suspense, the filmmakers did a good job in keeping the audience off balance, especially in the tantalizingly slow revelation the true identity of Patrick. While his role was never fully identified in the epilogue, it was clear that the true bonding that took place in the film was among women. The mysterious figure of Wendy, who had faked her death, suddenly appears at the Crêpe Vine restaurant where Lisa is working and tells her, "there is a special place in hell for a woman who does not help another woman." The same fidelity is apparent in Beverly, the kind neighbor of Lisa, who speaks the sage words, "all men have secrets."
The irony should not be lost on the viewer that Dr. Michael Harris is an instructor of ethics. But the genuine ethics come not from Michael's deadly lessons, but from the kind-hearted women who support Lisa in her time of need.
By the midpoint of the film, there is a clear and present danger for Lisa. But it remains fuzzy as to which one of the men poses the greater threat. Is it Patrick? Is it Michael? Or, is it both"?
The film has an idyllic setting in picturesque northern Washington. Dr. Harris has taken a new position at a college in Olympia, and he and Lisa move into a secluded manor house, which rapidly becomes a cesspool of dysfunction and harassment for Michael's "little Lisa."
The actress playing the role of Lisa was terrific in carrying the picture. Her character had given up her schooling, her friends, and had even severed ties with her mother to be Michael. Yet it began to dawn on her that she had married a monster. After Michael smashed Lisa's cell phone in a fit of rage, it stretched credibility for Lisa to remain the relationship. The actress was excellent in rising above the script and the situation to make the drama as convincing as it was.
As for suspense, the filmmakers did a good job in keeping the audience off balance, especially in the tantalizingly slow revelation the true identity of Patrick. While his role was never fully identified in the epilogue, it was clear that the true bonding that took place in the film was among women. The mysterious figure of Wendy, who had faked her death, suddenly appears at the Crêpe Vine restaurant where Lisa is working and tells her, "there is a special place in hell for a woman who does not help another woman." The same fidelity is apparent in Beverly, the kind neighbor of Lisa, who speaks the sage words, "all men have secrets."
The irony should not be lost on the viewer that Dr. Michael Harris is an instructor of ethics. But the genuine ethics come not from Michael's deadly lessons, but from the kind-hearted women who support Lisa in her time of need.
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