LMN
LMN kicks off the most romantic weekend of the year with some movies under the heading of ‘Vicious Valentines’ … at least that’s what it says on screen. The ads for the Valentine’s weekend movies label them something entirely different, so someone somewhere didn’t get the memo apparently. But this week’s Thursday night movie, An Unstable Marriage, could qualify as a ‘Vicious Valentine’ … and there may be spoilers ahead to justify this so if you haven’t yet watched the movie, proceed with caution.
An Unstable Marriage is a terrible pun of a title as it takes place at, well, an elite horse riding academy with … stables, of course. The story focuses on sort-of newlyweds Caitlin and Lucas. Caitlin has her own, new PR firm, and Lucas is a partner in the academy. The other partner, Greg, seems to come and go, but is generally snappy with everyone and refuses to hear any of Lucas’ or Caitlin’s ideas about diversifying operations, such as opening up the large clubhouse to paid events. No, dammit, this is an elite academy, we don’t need any distractions or extra revenue. Well, actually, the academy does need the revenue because, apparently, Lucas went and spent all the savings and that is why Greg is perpetually angry. Caitlin is very confused about this when she learns Lucas spent the money on a cabin in the middle of nowhere. Caitlin is also not feeling very welcomed by the ‘Horse Moms’, and it’s unclear if it’s because she married Lucas, who they all seem to love except when they don’t (mom Madison likes him but doesn’t like his training methods that don’t seem to match her aspirations for getting her daughter into the Olympics), or if it’s because Caitlin seems to be the only one of them that very hunky stable boy Thomas shows any attention, leading them all to believe they are having an affair. Those thoughts only get exacerbated when Lucas goes off for a ride one day and never returns. Compounding matters is the fact that Lucas’ daughter Ripley sort-of likes Caitlin, but is shocked to learn — after Caitlin takes a tumble down a flight of stairs (or was she pushed?) — that she’s also going to be a big sister (her father and Caitlin planned to tell her at dinner that night before Lucas went missing), so her own world seems to be crumbling and she doesn’t know if she can trust Caitlin.
Caitlin quickly steps into Lucas’ shoes and tries to keep things running at the academy, but Greg and the moms don’t make her life easy. She’s trying to woo a client to her firm — and the client has reservations because there is a rumor about some shady business Caitlin allegedly did at her previous firm — but when she brings the potential client to the clubhouse after a tour of the facilities, the place is trashed (the moms had been in there earlier, but assured her the place would look like they’d never been there). The only person Caitlin has to rely on at this point, besides Thomas, is Jolie, another one of the moms who seems to not have her nose as high in the air as Madison. Caitlin decides to pay a visit to the cabin to see if Lucas is there, but all she finds are some papers, incriminating photos of Greg whipping a horse, and a copy of Martha Stewart’s Hors d’Oeuvres Handbook. No clue what that has to do with anything. Compounding her problems, someone in a red academy coat keeps stalking Caitlin, at one point leading her into a work shed where she gets her foot ‘tangled’ in a coiled rope (all she had to do was step backwards to get out of it) and above her a frayed rope is about to drop a strung up collection of sharp tools on her. Thomas to the rescue, and back in the clubhouse he decides to make his move and plant a kiss on her lips … just as Ripley walks in. Awkward. Now Ripley thinks Caitlin is having an affair, but she assures the girl that he kissed her, not the other way around. Ripley maintains her cool and goes about her business loading up a wheelbarrow full of hay to feed the horses, and Caitlin — who nearly suffered a miscarriage and should be taking it easy — decides to grab the wheelbarrow and get to work herself. Ripley can’t let her move that heavy thing so they switch places and while Caitlin is using the pitchfork to bale the hay, she discovers … Lucas, dead as a doornail. So he never made it off the property, but who would want to kill him? Naturally the police pin Caitlin as the prime suspect, but she has her own list that includes Greg, Madison or even maybe Thomas. And could Ripley have possibly had anything to do with it? Surely Jolie is in the clear. Greg is suddenly out of the running when he shows up at the office with a corkscrew in his back … just like the one Madison was wielding earlier. When Ripley disappears, things get even more serious, but she’s just hiding in one of the horse stalls … until she is confronted by the killer. So whodunit?
LMN
An Unstable Marriage is just a standard LMN mystery-thriller that works overtime to distract you from the obvious suspect with one red herring after another. One of the biggest is Thomas, and the misstep with his story is when he kisses Caitlin. A totally unnecessary moment that only served to make Ripley believe the rumors but Caitlin quickly quells her concerns and then he pretty much disappears until the end. It was enough for people to believe their platonic relationship was something more, so write Kelly Peters didn’t really need to add that kiss. Ripley just walking in on them would have been enough (she had already walked in to Caitlin’s bedroom after her fall to find Thomas sitting on the bed looking at something on her laptop that gave Ripley enough ammunition to think there was more to it). Greg was certainly in line to be the killer, but he was too obvious and he would not have put his business in jeopardy. Madison is depicted as just crazy enough to off someone but she really is more of the emotional torture kind of person (and we all took some pleasure out of Caitlin having enough of her shenanigans and banning her from the academy). So that really leaves just one person, and whether it was the choice of the actor or director Brittany Goodwin’s guidance on how to play the character, you pretty much know who it is right from the beginning because the vibe coming from her is saying that she was involved with Lucas at one point. Of course that is Jolie.
Was it the writing, the directing, the acting or a combination of all three? Alicia Blasingame just completely telegraphs Jolie’s connection to Lucas from the first time she appears on screen, giving ex vibes, obviously with some connection to Lucas beyond his teaching skills. The way she looks at him gives it away. There are also many times when she is obviously trying to deflect or distract, steering conversations in different directions when talking with Caitlin about Lucas. And what the whole movie boils down to is jealousy, because she was having an affair with him, he went away for a while and came back with a wife when she thought they would pick up where things left off (especially after her divorce). Greg knew too much and was blackmailing her so he had to die too. She trashed the clubhouse to make Caitlin look bad and Lucas found out, so she killed him. And her extreme solution in the end is to burn the stables down with Caitlin and Ripley trapped inside. But at least she took the horses out. The moment did give Blasingame a moment to go a bit crazy and chew the scenery, running through her list of crimes, but it all ended up being a bit confusing. Blasingame gives a decent performance but it’s just not subtle enough for anyone to not see that she is the killer.
On the other hand, Skye Coyne — who we last saw in the excellent Murder at the Lighthouse — has a way of elevating mediocre material. She really gave it her all in the not-so-great Be Careful What You Say, and she works hard here but does it effortlessly, giving an entirely natural performance, showing Caitlin as a woman put into some extraordinary circumstances but never going over-the-edge with the performance. She makes Caitlin feel like a real person caught up in this unexpected situation. Her reactions to every new revelation about Lucas or Greg or Madison feel honest, and she never gives any hint of a romantic interest in Thomas (perhaps she’s a little too oblivious to his feelings, but if she doesn’t feel that way about him why should she believe he does?). I had to commend her gritty and raw performance in Murder at the Lighthouse, giving the essence of Lady Gaga in A Star is Born, just showing how good she can be with the right material and the right director. Here she gives a lighter, more down-to-earth characterization for Caitlin, making her a woman anyone would want to have as a friend, really connecting with the audience. Sometimes she comes off as a bit too much of a people-pleaser, and that is mainly so she doesn’t step on any toes at the academy, but she also gets tough and tells Greg exactly how things are going to be after she takes charge, really developing a thicker skin to just get though this nightmare without completely losing her mind. Coyne makes Caitlin sweet but tough when she needs to be, showing many facets of her personality. She truly does elevate the material and makes it watchable because we are invested in Caitlin.
LMN
Sheena Colette is also great as Madison. She is the polar opposite of Caitlin, the ‘Mean Girl’ all grown up. Even if the character is a bit of a cartoon, Colette obviously relishes this role, getting to steal every scene she’s in, sometimes completely over-the-top, sometimes subtly menacing, but always giving Madison an edge, making her someone you do not want to turn your back on. Avery Hobson is also very good as Ripley, trying to keep her life together as things are falling apart, wondering at first if her father abandoned her for some reason, having to go from cordial to suspicious with Caitlin, to finally needing Caitlin as her support system. She also gets to do some business during the climax, essentially the one who saves the day. Sully Christian also does some nice work as Thomas, at first not seeming like he’s anything but an employee at the academy and a friend to Caitlin (he knows how bad the ‘Horse Moms’ can be), and makes his feelings for Caitlin obvious but subtle enough that she doesn’t pick up on it until he kisses her. Adam Harper portrays Lucas as a decent, hard-working guy, while Donald Ome portrays Greg as a total jerk, always with a massive chip on his shoulder which is fitting. Charles L. Bailey Jr. plays Detective Quincy as that typical cop who seems to have only one narrative in mind — the spouse did it — and often comes off as annoyed when Caitlin tries to get his help.
All in all,
An Unstable Marriage has a run time of 1 hour 30 minutes, and is rated TV-14.