Lifetime
Lifetime rolls out its second ‘Temptations Story” movie with Fame: A Temptations Story, which focuses on the lives and career of a pair of musical sisters that becomes consumed by jealousy and distrust, asking the question if their relationship is built on grace and goodness or retribution and grudges. Perhaps a little of both, and things aren’t helped by others from their inner circle.
Fame: A Temptations Story is centered around singing duo The Jordan Sisters, Cherish (Keri Hilson) and Roxy (Keshia Chanté). While performing at a ‘tiny studio’ concert, Cherish throws her sister a curveball by wanting to sing one last song, a song their late father taught them. Roxy forges on but they are both taken aback when photos of them and their father are shown on a large monitor behind them, only further opening their emotional wounds over his recent passing. Cherish later apologizes for the ambush and everything is fine between them … until a TV interview is sprung on Roxy, and not even Cherish’s husband Bryan thinks it’s a good idea. During the questioning by tabloid journalist Kelley Vanbrant (Amy Goodmurphy), the subject is broached that fans and other sources believe Roxy and Bryan are having an affair. Furious at this suggestion, Roxy storms off, in a bit of a rage at cousin Halle (Ecstasia Sanders), who was supposed to shut it down if either of the sisters objected to a question but she was too busy looking at her phone (something that will be a key point later). Later that night, concerned that Roxy has not returned home, Bryan — who is also their manager — goes to find her and try to smooth things over, knowing exactly what bar she’ll be at. He does calm her down and gives her a quick hug, but the next day Cherish’s assistant Iris (Sophie Carriere) — who is a bit over-the-top in her devotion to Cherish, but not Roxy — has reposted photos of the hug on Cherish’s social media account (and the question is who knew Bryan was going to be at that specific location to take the pictures?) which leads to her being terminated immediately. But a video that was recorded during the interview showing Cherish and Roxy ‘fighting’ over Bryan — which never happened but has been captioned to make it appear so — also pops up and the question is who took that video? Also to note, there is absolutely nothing going on between Roxy and Bryan because she sees him as a brother.
Later, Bryan has some great news that the Jordan Sisters have been offered a residency in Las Vegas, which would allow him and Cherish time to finally start their family after years of being on the road touring. Presenting the offer to Roxy, she firmly turns it down, not wanting to be in the same place every night playing the same songs. She storms out, raising some eyebrows, particularly Halle’s, but Roxy is clearly feeling that this is being made all about Cherish. Again. Needing some space, Roxy goes out to another bar and runs into an old high school friend/crush/aspiring country music artist, Nate (Romeo Miller) — who is in a staged relationship with another very popular singer he refers to as ‘America’s sweetheart’ to help boost his career — and the two head back to the house to … catch up. Upon arrival, Roxy discovers Bryan on the floor unconscious, blood around his head, and Cherish bound and gagged on the other side of the kitchen island (Halle was also apparently tazed). Some masked men had broken into the rented home earlier and assaulted them and taken some item including a ring that belonged to their father. The ring has some importance because while it had been missing, a lawyer recently returned it to the sisters with a letter stating that it was specifically for Cherish. There had always been a history of what Roxy believed was favoritism toward her sister — he once told Cherish to ‘outshine’ Roxy — that had left a current of jealousy between the sisters. Signs begin to point to Iris as the culprit after she attacks Roxy, and Roxy learns Iris had taken the ring to a pawn shop and bought a gun, but the police keep Roxy squarely in their sights as the person behind the crimes thanks in no small part to Halle and Cherish constantly suggesting to the police that her jealousy has led her to this point. With Nate unwilling to admit he was with Roxy that night for fear of destroying his burgeoning career, Roxy is on her own to put all the pieces together, and after taking a dig at Kelley’s tabloid journalism career — she used to be a real investigative journalist — the two join forces to uncover the truth with some shocking results.
Lifetime
Fame: A Temptations Story at first seems to be a story about sibling rivalry tearing these famous sisters apart, but it actually evolves into a whodunit following the assault and robbery (gone wrong) at the house (and, yes, it was a large rented house in the middle of the Las Vegas desert, not a hotel penthouse as described in the official Lifetime synopsis). The screenplay by Andrea Shawcross and Annmarie Morais and Jane Espenson skillfully weaves together a story of fame and sibling rivalry, but it always lets the audience sympathize with Roxy — who we know is not having an affair with Bryan and did not stage the robbery — while allowing us to try to solve the mystery of who did perpetrate the crimes. It almost becomes a little frustrating as a viewer to be one step ahead of the characters, and the police are written in such a way that they seem to have no other suspects but Roxy … even after Iris attempts to stab her at the recording studio (where the police are right down the hall questioning Nate but Roxy never calls out to them) and spray paints a threatening message on her car’s windshield. But when the twist comes and the culprit(s) are revealed with the help of Kelley, it really is a surprise when we learn there was a lot more to the plot than it first seemed. Director Robert Adetuyi also does a great job at keeping up the misdirection without making it seem like there is any misdirection happening.
The cast is fantastic. Keri Hilson takes on the role of Cherish, an interesting choice since, as an associate producer of the film, the character is really secondary to Roxy. It’s refreshing that she didn’t put her own fame ahead of the project, and she plays Cherish very well, even though sometimes we want to shake her to make her see what’s going on (although perhaps she’s choosing not to see the truth because she wants that Vegas residency). She also has a great sisterly bond with Keshia Chanté, who is fantastic as Roxy. Chanté really does the heavy lifting here, appearing in almost every scene as she has to work to unravel what’s going on. She plays the relationship with Bryan perfectly, never once giving any indication that there’s anything but familial love between them, she gets rightfully fed up with the police, and shows her hurt when the one person who can confirm her alibi refuses to do so for his own career. Chanté allows the viewer to truly sympathize with Roxy, and we feel all the better for her redemption at the end.
Without spoiling any of the twists and turns of the story, we’ll just say the supporting cast is excellent. Ecstasia Sanders is really great as Halle, Nathan Witte is charming and supportive as Nate (also never giving the impression that he has eyes for anyone but Cheris), Sophie Carriere is wonderfully over-the-top as superfan Iris, Romeo Miller does some nice work as Nate, Reese Alexander is frustratingly arrogant as Detective Marshall, while Veronica Long is a bit more thoughtful about the case as Detective Alvarez. Composer and Music Supervisor Travon Potts has also crafted some wonderful songs for the Jordan Sisters, which appear to have been actually performed beautifully by Hilson and Chanté. The film also has some very high production values — especially during the production of a music video — which sets it apart from a typical TV movie. All in all, Fame: A Temptations Story works because of its interesting story and a terrific cast, putting it a step above the pretty good Desire: A Temptations Story. It will be interesting to see if this series of films continues, and what the creators have up their sleeve next.
Fame: A Temptations Story has a run time of 1 hour 27 minutes, and is rated TV-14.
Official Trailer | Fame: A Temptations Story
Lifetime