I realize this is a villain we're supposed to root for, but the acting is too much for me. It's Lifetime caliber, but take it down a notch. It's always an eye roll moment for me when kids consider themselves entitled to their parents' money. To the point of murder. I realize that it happens in real life, but it's not a worthy motivation in movies. Additionally, it's hard to sympathize with someone who's a thief, scammer, user, and from the early minutes is just a bad person. I don't think a bad relationship with Daddy is a reason to treat others poorly. The opening moments show she's a brat. She gets fired for stealing but then instead of taking responsibility, she gets mad at her boss because he has cameras in his restaurant and she calls him a perv and destroys property. She runs out on paying her rent and steals a vehicle in the process. What was she doing with the money she stole? People like this are extremely hard to root for. Compounded with over the top acting, it's already hard to sit through this.
I think revenge stories can be interesting. A Father's Nightmare was quite good. A more recent movie, My Father's Other Family, was very good with a very believable "origin" story for the villain. There's another fun one called Mad Mom that is revenge-ish. But the problem with this movie is that Callie is just a horrible person. It would almost be one thing if she was laser-focused on destroying her dad for his perceived wrongs, but she destroys so much else JUST because she wants her way. That is the definition of a brat, and she's not even neat or calculating with it. She makes so many obvious mistakes, did she even think this through or expect to get away with it? It's also extremely cliche when the black sheep of the family has literal black hair. Or dark brown versus their golden-haired sibling. And don't forget Lifetime goth with dark makeup, nails, and clothes. I'm not against letting the villain be a villain asap, however this movie would have been more interesting and less like the norm had they gone more subtle with a lot.
And honestly....if they wanted us to believe childhood trauma is why she is the way she is, why did this all boil down to money? More often than not, these movies are light on the villain motivation and this is no exception. It would almost be more interesting if once her father cut her off, instead of lashing out, she made something of herself WITHOUT his help. Then the movie could have played out with his stroke and she could have come home, still harboring her bratty feelings, and enacted her "plans," in a more calculating way. But then that would have called for subtle acting and that's definitely not what we got.
If you can get through the fifteen minute tantrum at the beginning, you might be able to finish it. I just happened to record this on Lifetime this evening and didn't realize it was from 2014. I have no idea who this actress is. Judging from IMDb, I maybe have seen her in an episode of White Collar, but the only reason I kept watching was bc the reviews seemed to focus on her. It was just too much for me.
Also Lifetime's penchant for just throwing villains in mental institutions....sometimes they just belong in jail. I think Lifetime falls back on too many of their villains being "crazy," when most of them just need to be held responsible for their crimes.
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