Lifetime
The Lifetime network has a new original movie every Saturday night, presumably to compete and contrast with the Hallmark Channel’s decidedly different Saturday night movies, but apparently the network also has a Sunday night original movie as demonstrated recently with the thriller Murder Below Deck. Although unless you’re a faithful viewer of the network, you might not even know this movie exists. Lifetime seems to want to keep it a secret as well because there is zero promotional material available except for one or two random stills and some artwork. But a movie about murder on a boat sounded promising, giving me hope that it would be something along the lines of Death on the Nile or The Last of Sheila. What was presented was pretty standard TV fare.
The story centers on Lauren (Harley Bronwyn), a young woman who just dumped her fiance after he cheated on her. Again. Her friend Naomi (Quisha Saunders) invites her to join her on a luxury yacht to get away not just for fun and sun, but to work as one of the elite crew who service the rich passengers. Lauren packs her stuff, quits her job and goes to work with her friend (over her mother’s objections), and enjoys one night of fun before passengers arrive and the work begins. Crew chief Amy (Nadine Alexandra) is a bit of a hard-ass and already seems to have it out for newbie Lauren, and Naomi either tells Lauren that she shouldn’t mingle with the passengers or that it’s okay since they’re all out to sea and whatever happens, happens. Seems like it’s the latter because the second billionaire Mark (Alexander Trumble) comes aboard sparks fly and the two are canoodling on the first night out to sea. And Amy ain’t happy, seeming to have eyes for Mark herself. Another of the employees, Sarah (Robin Mazer), also gets into something with Mark’s right hand man Rudy (Oliver Pras). Things get complicated when Mark’s fiancee Dana (Taylor Anne Davey) comes aboard unannounced, making Lauren feel just a bit used after she and Mark slept together on the first night. Dana isn’t blind though and is pretty certain Mark’s been up to his usual dirty deeds. Amy revels in making Lauren Dana’s personal assistant, and heading off for a day on an island, the two actually bond a bit with Lauren trying to assure Dana that all she and Mark did was talk about a business idea she has. But back on the yacht (which for some reason keeps being referred to as a ship), Dana has had just about enough of Mark’s philandering and a loud argument awakens Lauren, who hears a thump and a splash after things get quiet. The next morning Mark tells the captain that Dana had to leave, and even though he says he didn’t hear a tender arrive, he just accepts Mark’s explanation even though he’s acting really, really shady. Lauren is certain Dana was murdered and dumped overboard and puts on her best Jessica Fletcher persona to solve the crime. But can she succeed before Mark catches up to her? And did Mark have help, which could complicate things further?
Murder Below Deck is an obvious attempt to capitalize on Bravo’s popular Below Deck franchise. The movie even goes so far as to tell us up front that it’s based on a true story. We’ll just have to take their word for it (but a lot of movies and TV shows of late have used the ‘Based on a true story’ tag for a completely fictional production). The script by John F. Hayes and A.J. Kelly, who seem to specialize in these types of murder-mystery-thrillers, is mildly entertaining but probably not in the way they anticipated. There are more ‘WTF just happened?’, ‘Where did those people come from?’, ‘Did I have a stroke?’ reactions to the movie rather than the ‘Oh what a clever twist that was’ variety. What should be a major plot point — at least it’s presented as something you should remember — about a decorative anchor is quickly glossed over and forgotten. I mean, the captain literally makes Lauren knock on the anchor for good luck before they set sail, and when it disappears she never suggests to anyone that the anchor was used to weigh down Dana’s body. Nope, the captain tells Amy to find it and that’s that. Things do get a little more fun when Lauren and Naomi put on their detective hats, but they all suffer another casualty along the way (and really for no apparent reason other than to up the body count), but when all is revealed it’s pretty much what you expected. Also, we see five people board the yacht — including the captain’s wife/girlfriend (?) — and after a night at sea the passengers have practically multiplied. On the other hand, the direction by Brian L. Tan (also listed in the opening credits as ‘BLT’) is quite good and makes use of the stunning locations, and some very nice lighting during the night scenes. Whoever did the cinematography and lighting actually elevates the film a notch.
The cast performances range from really good to a little cringey. Harley Bronwyn is fine as Lauren. She really gives it her best but she’s saddled with a script that almost gives her multiple personalities and we see her lounging around more than actually working. But at least she is believable and vulnerable when need be. Alexander Trumble really starts off great. He makes Mark personable and a bit irresistible, and after Dana’s disappearance he makes a 180 and becomes sullen, angry and unhinged. But it becomes a little one-note as it goes on and no one seems to suspect that he had anything to do with Dana’s disappearance. That’s not all on him though, it’s just how the character is written, and even when he tries to be the Mark he was at the beginning, Trumble still shows a bit of that darkness and danger under the surface. He really does become like a caged animal as he feels things closing in on him (apparently he’s having money issues as well, but that’s another point briefly mentioned and quickly forgotten). It’s a really good performance considering what he has to work with.
Nadine Alexandra’s Amy is supposed to be the tough boss, but she comes off as a bit too stiff and sounds like she may have been struggling to maintain an American accent with her stilted delivery. She was born in the UK so as someone who works on a luxury yacht, there’s no reason it wouldn’t have been quite normal for her to have a British accent. She unfortunately has to dive into some scenery chewing histrionics near the end of the film, so there was probably a combination of things contributing to her so-so performance. Robin Mazer is quite good as Sarah, Quisha Saunders is likable as Naomi but occasionally a bit amateurish in her performance, Oliver Pras plays Rudy in such a way that we don’t know where he stands with Mark, and Caroline Zachrie boards the yacht and disappears until one scene with the captain in the hot tub and appears again at the end, but she seems sincere in the final moments even though she didn’t seem to be anywhere on the yacht when things were going down. Taylor Anne Davey (who doesn’t even get a credit on the movie’s IMDb page) is actually very good as Dana. She comes aboard with the whole model/influencer attitude, seeming to feel that she’s above everyone else on the yacht but when she shares that moment with Lauren on the island, she becomes a real person with real feelings who actually has empathy for Lauren. It’s too bad she became the victim. I was kind of hoping this would turn into a movie where she and Lauren bond and dispose of Mark and get away with it.
In the end, Murder Below Deck is just fine. It’s nowhere near as egregiously bad as Lifetime’s Saturday movie Held Hostage In My House, it’s got decent performances, gorgeous scenery, some beautiful lighting, and nice direction. It’s just let down a little by the script, but in the end it’s not a total waste of time.
Murder Below Deck has a run time of about 1 hour 30 minutes, and is rated TV-14.
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