Lifetime
Lifetime’s newest ‘Sunday Night Thrills’ cooks up a pretty decent mystery, but it’s hard to tell if the filmmakers and cast were intentional with delivering something that verges on high camp, because there are a lot of laughs to be had here, but I fear they may have been unintentional.
Our Dead Husband stars Brittney Q. Hill as Kris Holland, hard working businesswoman who seems to have little time for a personal life. Kris is surprised at her office by husband Richie Kemp (Brock Vickers), who tells her he has quit his top secret government job to spend more time with her, and perhaps they can even move from Georgia to South Carolina. That’s something to think about, but when Kris gets home from the office she finds dinner cooking on the stove and Richie … dead in another room. Someone he knew, in a Black Hoodie of course, got into the house and shot him in the heart. Kris spends the night with her friend Brandy (Libby Blake), trying to figure out what happened. The police, led by Detective West (it’s Wade Hunt Williams again!), find a pair of gloves matching a pair Kris has and they have blood on them. They also find a gun consistent with the weapon believed to have killed Richie. While Kris is grappling with the loss, she decides to go to her office to keep busy, and there she is visited by a young woman named Cassie who reveals that she is Richie’s sister. Kris did not know he had a sister, but she does know his parents are dead. Well … mom is still very much alive though in poor health, so Kris agrees to pay a visit to their home and try to figure out why Richie was murdered. Mom Dot (Linda Lindsey) is pretty much in a catatonic state and can’t do much but sit and stare, and Cassie reveals that Richie scammed her and Dot of all their money, and taking care of Dot is expensive … not that she’s asking for a handout from Kris, who suddenly has no idea who this man was that she married.
Lifetime
As Kris finds herself under suspicion, she remembers Richie’s obsession with a clock, so she sneaks back into the house (which is still considered a crime scene) and finds a false bottom on the clock with a combination lock on the real bottom. Unable to figure out the combination, Kris does the next best thing — smashes the clock. Amidst the wreckage she finds a small envelope, and inside is a driver’s license and a key. The license belongs to Richie but the address is not their current home. What’s a girl to do but pay a visit to whoever lives at that address to deliver the news about Richie. Arriving at the gated house, Kris finds a woman named Jennifer — whom we saw earlier coming home and saying to her security guy Clyde (Paul A. Rossi) that she did it, and she feels good. Did what? Murdered Richie? As Kris explains what happened to Richie, Jennifer reveals to her that she is in fact Richie’s wife, and they have a daughter whose birthday party is being planned at that moment. While Kris is shocked by this news, Jennifer is shocked to learn about the sister and living mother. Kris also mentions a clock, and she sees a photo from Jennifer and Richie’s wedding, recognizing the officiant, Troy (Christian Ortega), as the same guy who performed her wedding. Jennifer assures Kris she will confirm her story, and after Kris leaves Jennifer also smashes the clock she has and finds a similar envelope with a license and different address. The women team up and pay a visit to the new address, finding some mail that indicates Richie had a storage unit so that must be what the key that Kris found goes to. When they locate the unit, it is empty save for several duffel bags full of cold hard cash and they need to get it before the cops arrive. They also confront Troy, and Kris is later attacked by someone in a Black Hoodie who needs that money and the files. There is also the matter of Kris’ ex-fiance, Will (Allen C. Shepherd Sr.), who still shows interest in rekindling something with her, and whom Brandy believes is Richie’s killer, Kris and Jennifer continue to dig, Brandy is worried that Kris is now in danger from Jennifer, Troy ends up with a bullet in his chest, and Cassie drops a major bomb on the women that completely changes everything.
Lifetime
Our Dead Husband is a pretty nifty thriller for the most part, with a script by Aaron Hierholzer that has to juggle a lot of pieces to keep things flowing with a coherent storyline. There are times when the whole thing teeters over into parody, and it does begin to fall apart a bit at the end with some unanswered questions (I’m still not really sure who attacked Kris). There are a lot of characters to keep track of, and perhaps the whole Will subplot was unnecessary. Director Christine Conradt does manage to keep the mystery intact until the very end, although you may well begin to suspect one of the main players isn’t who they claim to be. It’s an entertaining watch with a good resolution, but after it’s over you can’t think about it too much because you will realize there are some unanswered questions.
One of the biggest questions may be, ‘is this supposed to be a parody?’ Quite a few Lifetime and LMN movies recently have really felt like they were meant to be funny, and Our Dead Husband is among that group (the title alone is enough to convince). And the cast also seems to be in on the joke. Brittney Q. Hill has to play Kris completely straight as she is the focal point around which the story revolves. She does a good job of not playing the role in parody territory, making Kris the perfect Lifetime movie victim of circumstance. On the other hand, Deb Foster is playing Jennifer as a camp character. Almost every line of dialogue drips with snark, and Foster knows exactly how to deliver them. Her voice, her expressions, the fact that she never once touches her baby, gives the character so much humor but was it intentional? It’s hard to tell, but in any case she and Hill work well enough together that you could see them in a series of movies solving crimes.
Lifetime
Molly McClusky perfectly plays Cassie as the innocent sister, tasked with taking care of the mother who can’t take care of herself, willing to help Kris and Jennifer get to the bottom of Richie’s mysteries (two of which include there is no record of him being in the military, and no record of him working for the CIA). She plays the part so well that there is no reason to suspect she will drop any bombs but when she does she also gets to camp it up a bit (noted by a slight change to her hair and make-up). Libby Blake is Kris’ stalwart friend Brandy, always by Kris’ side but, in another unintentionally funny moment, she tells the office that she is the CEO while Kris is out and everyone answers to her … and a second later Kris walks in. The look on Brandy’s face is priceless, like she just had a promotion snatched from her grip. Wade Hunt Williams is back again as another cop, doing all he can to pin the murder on Kris (and he has a moment of his own at the end that elicited a laugh from his expression as he realizes he totally screwed up the case). Paul A. Rossi is fine as Clyde, a security guy who does his job, Christopher Ortega plays Troy as if he’s slightly stoned, Allen C. Shepherd Sr. really gives Will some affection for Kris, and demonstrates a very short temper when confronted by Brandy, and Brock Vickers really makes Richie seem totally in love with Kris, never hinting that he has any major secrets (like another wife). The cast all do their best to bring the story to life, and they manage to make it entertaining even when things begin to not make sense. Is Our Dead Husband worth a watch? I suppose so because it is entertaining, just don’t take it too seriously.
Lifetime
And, besides the appearance yet again of the Black Hoodie character, Our Dead Husband also includes a moment when Kris needs to do an internet search, this time using the Giggo Search page. It’s becoming fun to see what the filmmakers will come up with since they can’t use Google (maybe they should start using Ask Jeeves or Netscape since they no longer exist but would be more believable than the kooky names they comes up with).
Our Dead Husband has a run time of 1 hour 27 minutes, and is rated TV-14.