Lifetime
The Lifetime networks, including LMN, have gone from bad to great with the three movies that have aired recently. LMN had the eye-rolling The Wrong Obsession, then Lifetime proper aired the not bad thriller My Amish Double Life and they’ve capped the week with the pretty great Murder at the Lighthouse … which is a terrible title because while there is a lighthouse, the murder takes place elsewhere so a better title would have been ‘Murder in the Vicinity of the Lighthouse’ … and to be honest, the lighthouse isn’t really a major plot point. But that does not detract from the finished product.
Murder at the Lighthouse stars Skye Coyne as a young woman named Jess, first seen on the run for reasons unknown, calling her mother for what may be the last time for a while, and leaving her phone and wedding ring on the hood of her car before she meets up with her friend Rory and his brother Anthony, who run a charter boat service. There is a storm brewing but against Anthony’s wishes, Rory assures him and Jess that he can beat the storm and get Jess secreted across the border into Canada. After they depart, a man claiming to be a police officer shows up at Anthony’s house asking for information on Jess and Rory’s whereabouts, but not believing he is really an officer Anthony refuses and pays for it with his life. On the lake, the storm has become too much for the small boat and a giant wave capsizes it, washing Jess up on the shore while Rory is assumed to be dead.
In the morning, a woman finds Jess unconscious on the beach and, with the aid of a fishing net, drags her back to her secluded house in the woods where she springs into rescue mode trying to save Jess’ life. When Jess awakes in a bed, not knowing how she got there, the woman comes into the room and introduces herself as Adeline. Jess, however, says her name is Lucy and asks if there is any information about the boat or her friend. Jess is also disappointed to find out she’s still on US soil but doesn’t give Adeline much information, only worried that she may have called the police. Not to worry because Adeline’s phone service has been down since the last storm so they are pretty much cut off from civilization, except for the sheriff who pays unannounced visits to check in with the more secluded residents in the area. Jess has an injured ankle and can’t walk very well so she is forced to stay with Adeline, who nurses her back to health. She also figures out that Jess has more to her story than she’s let on, but she is fully committed to keeping her guest safe. Things take a turn when the cop who killed Anthony shows up looking for information, and Adeline lies to his face about not having seen the woman he’s looking for, but this forces Jess to reveal the truth — the ‘officer’ is her husband and she’s running from him because he’s been abusing her, and he’s threatened her mother after she made a report on her daughter’s behalf resulting in his suspension. He wants revenge now, and Adeline is determined to do what she can to keep her new friend safe … including murder. The husband, Colton, does return and ends up dead at the hands of Adeline, but Jess begins to feel like a prisoner now that the two are complicit in this horrible act, as Adeline becomes more captor than savior. Adeline reveals her own secrets which she says bonds the two women, but Jess now finds herself in a race to save her own life as Adeline becomes increasingly unbalanced.
Murder at the Lighthouse is one of Lifetime’s best thrillers. The story borrows heavily from such Stephen King stories as Misery and Dolores Claiborne — both great movies themselves and both starring Kathy Bates (although Dolores Claiborne is seriously underrated, so go check it out) — with its story of domestic abuse and captivity, but manages to not simply be a carbon copy of either story, instead combining the elements of Dolores Claiborne in the first half of the story with the Misery captive plotline with the second half, which actually comes as a pretty nifty twist. Writer Shawn Riopelle has done some great work here making the story feel familiar while still making it original enough that it doesn’t feel like a total ripoff of King’s work. He’s also created some terrific characters — and the film is very economical with its two main characters and four supporting characters — making the relationship between the two women front and center in the story, slowly peeling back the layers of their lives, revealing more secrets as the story progresses. Nothing here feels hokey, it’s just saddled with the silly title (yes, there is one scene inside the lighthouse that just serves as a bit of character development for Adeline, who has been tending to it for twenty years even though it’s pretty much automated at this point and on the way to being decommissioned). Director Eric D. Howell also does a great job of bringing the screenplay to life, skillfully building suspense leading up to the shocking murder, and then continuing to build on that as we begin to see Adeline as the new villain of the piece. Howell also makes great use of the locations on the lake and the area around Adeline’s house, keeping you on the edge of your seat as the women watch for Colton in the darkness. Excellent work from everyone on the production side including the lighting, set design, sound and editing.
Lifetime
Where the film also succeeds is in its casting. Skye Coyne, who was fine in LMN’s Be Careful What You Say but was hindered by some terrible writing, shines her as Jess. Everything she does is believable. We don’t know why she is running at the start of the movie, and through the writing and her performance we’re led to believe she has committed some crime, but as her situation changes as the story progresses, Coyne allows the viewer to empathize with Jess, registering the same shock we see on her face when she finds Colton dead on the floor when he was just unconscious when she went to get rope to tie him up. Coyne’s performance as Adeline becomes more unhinged keeps up on the edge of our seats as she is dragged into a situation she had no part in. All Jess was trying to do was escape her abusive husband and she ends up embroiled in a murder. Coyne really gets to show off her talents here and I could not help but get a Lady Gaga in A Star is Born vibe from her look, her voice, her mannerisms (and this is a total complement). I know this is not the kind of TV movie that would ever get Emmy recognition, but Coyne certainly deserves many accolades for her performance.
Matching her is Shelli Manzoline as Adeline, taking her from almost a protective mother figure — and she tells Jess a few times that she feels like a mother to her — to someone who has lost her grip on reality (something she does admit during the story’s climax). Manzoline’s performance is a slow burn because she never seems off-balance, and even after Colton’s brutal murder, she still puts on a happy facade and tries to convince Jess that it was for the best because he could have ended up killing them both. But as she begins to lose her grip, and reveals her own past and her fears of losing all that she’s built in her life of solitude, she still manages to earn some sympathy from the viewer … even though what she did to Colton was simply cold-blooded murder, but his presence and Jess’ story triggered Adeline and Manzoline makes the act feel justified. As Adeline becomes more dangerous, Manzoline never goes over-the-top with her performance, which makes it all the more compelling and terrifying until she does come completely unglued. Just like Coyne, she deserves some recognition for this performance, and for not making it feel derivative of what Kathy Bates did previously. Brava to both of these women.
The men in the cast are all excellent as well, though their time in the film is short. While Brandon Brooks’ Rory never says he has feelings for Jess, it’s clear through his performance that he’s helping her escape as more than just a friend. Tyler Noble is also good as his older brother Anthony, steadfast in both his opinion on what Rory is about to do as well as not revealing to Colton where is brother is going. Rod Kasai gives a really authentic performance as the small town sheriff, concerned about his citizens but also clever enough to suspect there is something going on with Adeline. Mark Justice is an imposing figure as Colton, very threatening with Anthony, a bit more calm when first questioning Adeline, and then putting on the phony ‘concerned husband’ act when he finally confronts Jess, skillfully enough to the point that it keeps her from harpooning him. All of the male actors do wonderful work with their brief screen time, and hold their own with the powerhouse performances from the women.
Upon hearing the title for this movie, expectations were low but through the clever script, skillful production and outstanding performances, Murder at the Lighthouse turned out to be a taut thriller that would do Stephen King proud.
Murder at the Lighthouse has a run time of 1 hour 27 minutes, and is rated TV-14.