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LMN’s ‘Hateful and Grateful’ series concludes with a new thriller directed by Haylie Duff, who is really making a name for herself with these LMN and Lifetime movies, consistently creating taut thrillers with good stories and compelling characters. Secret Life of a Good Wife is another good one on her resumé.
The story centers on Jenna, a social media influencer who is a day away from marrying the man of her dreams, Eric. But at the pre-wedding shindig at Eric’s family farm, mom Eileen is not shy about her disapproval of the marriage. It’s not specifically because of the husband-to-be, but rather the lifestyle of the family who values traditional role models for men and women, thus making Jenna a ‘trad wife’ (short for traditional for those new to the term). Jenna is expected to cook, clean, take care of the farm while her husband is … doing whatever he does during the day, and his family isn’t too keen on Jenna having a job, even if it is as an influencer (which she can do while attending to her expected duties so they seem to let it slide). What the family — mainly Eric’s dad Clint and mom Mae — can’t abide is Eileen’s attitude toward them. It has to be noted that Eileen was not the best mother to Jenna and her sister Sarah, so any ruckus she causes is easily dismissed and ignored by Jenna. But after Eileen goes missing between leaving the party in a huff and the day of the wedding (and we already know she was murdered by someone with an axe to grind … literally), Sarah becomes concerned since Eileen isn’t responding to her calls or texts. Jenna could not care less. But Sarah goes into junior detective mode and discovers Eileen’s phone along the path she would have taken back to her cabin on the property. Unable to unlock it, Jenna suggests trying 1-2-3-4-5-6 … and it works, but there has been no activity for days, no texts, no checking of emails, no purchases made. Now they both begin to feel that something has happened (and a note supposedly written by Eileen to Sarah sets off all kinds of alarms), but Sarah has to take the lead because now that Jenna is married … she has a curfew (causing her to sneak out of the house several time to reconnoiter with her sister).
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Things begin to get a bit more harrowing for Sarah as her investigations lead to several attacks, seemingly from various individuals including Eric’s best friend Luke (or is it always just Luke?). At one point, Jenna is nearly shot while at Sarah’s cabin (the shooter obviously thought they were shooting at Sarah), and while Sarah goes on the chase with a knife, she’s nearly strangled until she manages to cut the assailant’s hand. After being nearly run off the road by Luke on her way to see Jenna, Sarah suspects he had something to do with their mother’s disappearance and it isn’t long before the police are called in and discover Eileen’s blood-covered ring in Luke’s house. Jenna is feeling all kinds of pressure at this point, exacerbated by her husband and in-laws pressuring her on the daily to start birthing babies, so she asks her followers to help find her mother. That leads to death threats, and Clint asks for Jenna’s phone to keep her off of social media until things cool down. Now unable to reach her sister with her suspicions that Luke is the killer, Sarah has to hatch a plan to get Jenna out of the house so she can tell her what she’s found. She somehow manages to slip a note under the bedroom window frame (which is as dubious as the note from Eileen the way it is signed ‘Your little sister, Sarah’), and Jenna manages to sneak out past Clint, who is sitting on the porch, running nearly two miles to the rendezvous point. Convinced now that Luke is the killer, they head back to the house but Luke stops them and before he can do any harm, Eric shows up out of nowhere and shoots him dead. But Sarah has noticed something about Luke — after the attack on her, he was wearing a bandage on his hand but now the bandage is off and there is no visible wound, which means he was not the attacker and may not be their mother’s killer. So if the killer is not Luke, who could it be? Sarah may not find out as she is pushed in front of a moving pick-up truck after exiting Luke’s funeral service. Now Jenna has to spring into action, but who can she trust?
Secret Life of a Good Wife, written by Thomas Ambrosini, is a really taut thriller. The mystery of Eileen’s killer is kept hidden very well, and none of the suspects go out of their way to appear suspicious. There are no red herrings here, nothing to misdirect you away from the obvious killer. Can we chalk that up to Ambrosini’s screenplay, or Duff’s direction? If we base this on Ambrosini’s screenplay for My Husband’s Other Face, we may have to assign credit for the skill with which the story is presented to Duff. Because that other movie was just plain bad. But this story is crafted so well that even as someone who watches these movies week-after-week and can guess the identity of the suspect thirty minute in, I had no idea who could have killed Eileen until nearly the end of the movie. Add to that Duff’s skillful direction, presenting the whole situation as realistically possible, guiding her cast through natural performances, and you have a real winner. I have to say I really look forward to any movie now that comes with a Haylie Duff directorial credit.
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Duff has also scored with an excellent cast. Katy Wilson is very good as Jenna, making her social media content feel real while transitioning from a woman of the world to a woman in a whole new world where she is expected to be more domesticated. She also has to go through a lot of emotional trauma after learning of her mother’s death, and discovering that her new family may be manipulating her emotionally and physically, especially when it comes to having those babies. She does a nice job of conveying all of Jenna’s emotions authentically. But while she is the center of the story, it’s Sarah who really gets the most action, and Kennedy Martin is terrific in the role. She has to take on all of the burden of trying to find out what happened to their mother, and Martin handles all of the emotional and physical action extremely well. Even when she feels she’s not being heard by anyone, from Jenna to the police, Martin never allows her performance to go over into hysteria. She and Wilson have a good chemistry and really give off a sisterly bond.
Jason Frederick has a really difficult job as Eric, because he has to appear both as a devoted and concerned husband, but also just off-kilter enough to make us look at him with suspicion without him being overtly obvious. Through his performance, it’s hard to tell from one moment to the next if he is manipulating Jenna, or if he himself is being manipulated by Clint … or maybe it’s a little of both. Frederick has to tread a fine line, and he does so with expertise, guided by Duff’s steady direction. James Corso portrays Luke as a good old boy with a little dangerous streak to him. He puts on airs of being a good country boy, but there is always some menace lurking behind that demeanor. He builds the character up so much to be the prime suspect that it comes as a total shock when Eric guns him down, totally flipping the script in the process. Corso gives a really good performance. Bryan Frank as Sheriff Lamb is also good in his few scenes because you never know whose side he’s on. Because this takes place in a small community, Lamb is on very friendly terms with Clint and his family, so Frank’s performance always has us questioning if he’s actually looking for Eileen’s killer or if he’s covering up for the family and their community. Deena Dill is perfectly hateful as Eileen, really giving off some Donna Mills as Abby on Knots Landing vibes in her scenes at the pre-wedding party. It’s not hard to be on Jenna’s side when she’s murdered, but Dill does get to show a softer side of Eileen in a flashback when Jenna is remembering the first time she saw her baby sister. Eileen is also given a backstory that does explain why she became such a terrible mother to make her a tiny bit more sympathetic. Paul Van Scott is perfect as Clint, completely overbearing but also a fierce protector of his family and community. Janet Decker also does a great job as his wife Mae, always welcoming to Jenna, always treating her like family … even if her comment about Jenna now having the family she never had, right in front of Eileen, was a tad insensitive.
Overall, Secret Life of a Good Wife is a terrific, edge-of-your-seat mystery-thriller to end the ‘Hateful and Grateful’ theme for November, with totally assured direction from Haylie Duff and an excellent cast to bring the story to life. A tip of the hat to everyone involved.
Secret Life of a Good Wife has a run time of 1 hour 30 minutes, and is rated TV-14.
She looks so much like Donna Mills!