Lifetime
Lifetime’s newest drama-thriller tells a cautionary tale of of how greed can destroy so many lives and warns those climbing the ladder to success to be careful who they step on on the way up. Well, it’s not really all that serious, but this one gets the job done.
Erin Karpluk stars as Helen, a widowed mom with a young daughter, Penny (Sofia Irene Worsley), who is on the cusp of her tenth birthday. For her birthday breakfast, Penny reveals to her mom that her wish for her ninth birthday was that she got a job … and it worked, so her wishes are very powerful things. Helen is touched that her nine-year-old would use her birthday wish on her. Helen’s job is apparently as a personal chef to a wealthy tech bro, Roman (Ryan Fisher), and his wife Aurelia (Stephanie Izsak), think Elon but only half as douchey. On that same morning as Penny’s birthday, an employee of his company is thought to have committed suicide by driving her electric company car right in front of a speeding fire engine. We see, however, that someone took control of the car remotely and drove her into traffic, but the story is that she was distraught after being fired. At the Durand home where Helen works, her co-workers include Tiffany (Alana Hawley Purvis) and Danny (Philip Prajoux), whose jobs are really nondescript. Tiffany might be a sort of secretary, who also does laundry (?), and Danny … has known Roman for twenty years. Helen has her own garden at home and brings fresh herbs and veggies (organic, of course) to work to prepare the Durands their morning smoothies, but Aurelia is pretty bitchy to her and refuses to even take a sip. Tiffany tells Helen that she’ll just have to warm up to Aurelia, relating her own story as to how she was caught stealing from her employers but Aurelia sat her down and listened to how desperate Tiffany was at the time and she was forgiven and allowed to stay in their employ, now the best of friends. As the day comes to an end, Helen returns home with balloons and gifts for Penny, looking forward to preparing Penny’s favorite birthday dinner which consists of five different flavors of mac & cheese, a Macsplosion!
But Penny isn’t there when she gets home. The front door is open and the house is a bit ransacked. Helen panics but her phone rings and Jigsaw from the Saw movies is on the other end of the call, telling her that she will get Penny back unharmed but she has to do three tasks first. And don’t call the police, or else. Whoever is threatening Helen has eyes on her because even when she goes to her car to call the police, her phone rings and the caller warns her again to not involve the authorities. (That morning as Helen and Penny were leaving for work and school, a mysterious figure dressed black placed a tracking device in the wheel well of the car … and somehow Helen didn’t see the person even though they were in full view as she left her house.) The caller tells her to be calm and she will receive her first task the next day. When she goes to work, both Tiffany and Danny notice that Helen is not herself, and she keep snapping at Danny for no reason. Perhaps it’s because Tiffany told her that Danny really wants to ask her out, but now any innocent question he asks about how she’s feeling or how Penny is doing causes Helen to snap at him because she thinks these questions are a signal that he is behind Penny’s kidnapping. Helen gets the call that her first task is to take Roman’s phone, access a folder on the phone that contains incriminating photos of him with other women, and to forward the photos to the caller. She does manage to slip away with the phone when she serves the morning smoothies, but it isn’t long before Roman notices the phone is missing and Helen as to do some quick work to pretend she found it by the workout bench on the balcony of Roman’s bedroom. And that only makes Aurelia even more suspicious of Helen. The next day, Helen is to cater an event for the company at their headquarters, and the caller has given her a set amount of time to get everything prepared before she has to do her next task. Distracted and running out of time, Helen ‘accidentally’ cuts her finger and runs off to take care of it, but she stops in Roman’s office where she gets the call to perform her next task — log in to his computer, find a specific file filled with news articles (which probably could have been found anywhere online with a simple Google search) about how the green energy company is actually using highly toxic methods to create their green energy, and forward them to the caller. Which she does but she is nearly caught in the act first by Danny and then by Aurelia, who is now even more suspicious of Helen. Task complete, but Danny is still trying to go out with Helen, which she refuses but Jigsaw texts her and tells her to go on the date so he doesn’t become suspicious .. which should soothe her fears about him but doesn’t.
Lifetime
The next day, Helen gets notified of her last task — kill Roman. And this time we get to see the caller and it was exactly who I thought it was, the one person who was never in the room with Helen, or exited the room right before the calls came in. Also, that person has a very distinct voice and way of speaking that even the distortion couldn’t mask it. Helen doesn’t bat an eyelash and at dinner is provided with a special ingredient that will kill Roman as he eats — water hemlock. Helen prepares the meal, and there is also another ‘suicide’ via remotely controlled company car. Roman asks Helen to dine with him and give her half of his steak … which is supposed to be coated with the poisonous herb. She cautiously takes a bite and by the end of the meal Roman is suddenly taken ill, collapsing on the patio. With her tasks complete, Helen is given Penny’s location … she’s in the guest house right outside the front door. She’s been there the entire time but Helen never realized it even when she was allowed a video chat with her daughter. But the true identity of the person behind the efforts to ruin and kill Roman is revealed … and Roman may not be as dead as that person thinks he is. But will Helen be able to get Penny, and herself, to safety?
Do Exactly As I Say is a pretty tidy little thriller written by Joy Nicole Fox in just her second feature length TV movie. Fox may be vague on the details of the jobs performed by Helen, Tiffany and Danny, but the characters are still interesting. The character of Aurelia should be sympathetic considering the scandals involving her husband that she has to deal with, not to mention how Roman takes credit for a lot of her accomplishments, while Roman could have been written more aggressively awful. Still, the premise of Helen having to perform the tasks holds up, and it’s certainly a huge coincidence that the notion of a remotely controlled car used to stage a suicide was also a plot point of the recent The Naked Gun movie. But … is water hemlock the poison du jour now? The same herb was a focal point of LMN’s Secrets to Kill For! (Although the herb supplied to Helen purported to be water hemlock looks more like rosemary.) Where the writing fails a bit is in how hysterical and accusatory Helen gets with Danny. He’s easily the most sympathetic character in the story but the poor guy can’t be the least bit concerned or curious about Helen or Penny without her snapping his head off, almost turning the audience against Helen for being so mean to him. The film is directed well by Wendy Ord, who did a great job with Lifetime’s Seaching for a Serial Killer: The Regina Smith Story, and it was a pretty interesting idea to reveal the person making the calls about two-thirds of the way through the movie, followed by another twist that flips the whole story on its head (although it is also pretty easy to see who is the brains of the whole operation). Still, it’s a pretty nifty thriller that will hold your interest.
Lifetime
The cast also does a good job, for the most part. Erin Karpluk is fine as Helen, but she has a tendency to take the hysteria way over-the-top and she nearly turns you against Helen with the way she snaps at Danny. Yeah, she’s under a lot of pressure but it blinds her to the one person trying to show concern. She also appears to not care one bit about killing Roman, which is unnerving but it is revealed she only intended to knock him out, which is why she also ate the steak. Karpluk’s performance is a mixed bag, but some of that is the fault of how Helen is written. Philip Prajoux is excellent as Danny. The character is a stereotypical ‘good guy’ but Prajoux breathe some real humanity into the character, always having the audience on his side, feeling his hurt as Helen snaps at him, and actually feeling a bit relieved when the two don’t end up as a couple by the end, although there may still be some flirting now that Helen has calmed down. Would have been nice to at least see her apologize to him for accusing him of kidnapping Penny. Tiffany is played by the always great Alana Hawley Purvis, and I need to know why she was not included in the opening credits! It seems to be an unwritten law that Purvis must appear in every other Lifetime or LMN movie because she elevates every project she’s in, whether it’s in a lead or supporting role, so why did she not get billing in the opening credits (and she’s listed last in the main cast closing credits)? Purvis can play any role from a grieving mother to a snooty gallery owner to an action hero saving a little girl in the woods. And even though her character here is vaguely drawn, she still manages to bring Tiffany to life, especially when she confides in Helen about her story of theft and forgiveness. She really should have gotten third billing after Karpluk and Prajoux.
Stephanie Izsak is fine as Aurelia, although her instant distrust of Helen is a bit much. Her interactions with Roman actually feel natural, like she’s trying to hold the marriage together in the face of scandal, but she’s also dancing on the edge (she later reveals she wanted a divorce which Roman refused to go along with). Ryan Fisher, though, is probably the weakest link as Roman. He’s not enough of an a-hole, more of a self-centered bro who lives for the spotlight and acclaim. There was just something about his acting, his facial expressions and the way he carried himself that never clicked into place to make Roman the villain who deserved his fate. Sofia Irene Worsley gives a very good performance as Penny, a truly authentic 10-year-old who seems wise beyond her years but isn’t annoyingly precocious. Nice job.
Overall, Do Exactly As I Say has enough going for it storywise to hold your interest, and if you are paying close enough attention some of the twists are easy to figure out but that doesn’t make the movie any less entertaining. It’s all buoyed by some terrific performances that outweigh some of the more uneven ones, so while it isn’t great it is a fun enough time killer.
Do Exactly As I Say has a run time of 1 hour 28 minutes, and is rated TV-14.