Lifetime
Lifetime’s latest ‘Sunday Night Thrills’ movie, Seduced by His Lies, has a very interesting premise and a decent cast but the whole plot twist of the story is revealed by, you guessed it, the title!
Seduced by His Lies stars Lauren Lee Smith as Terri Thorne, a single woman looking for a new home but unsure if the time is right. After talking to Anne Carlson, a real estate agent at an open house — not the agent’s property, she claims — Terri is convinced with her looming promotion that the time is right and she puts an offer on the house. A few months later after spending some time in Paris for her job, Terri finds out she’s not getting the promotion and she also finds someone in her home. Believing she has an intruder, she soon learns that the man, Marcus Keller, is also the owner of the house because they are both victims of real estate fraud. It seems that during her time in Paris while the house was empty, some nefarious party ‘sold’ the house to Marcus. One guess who the scammer is. Yes, both Terri and Marcus knew of Anne, so now they have to both deal with the law to figure out who owns the house. Marcus happens to have a lawyer, Brian Armitage, who can help sort things out and he advises Terri to not attempt to take things into her own hands because these scammers can be dangerous. But with Detective Hewitt offering little assistance, and Marcus sitting on his hands, Terri feels she has no recourse but to do her own investigating. She finally meets her next door neighbor Julia, who at first thinks Terri is the previous owner as they look similar (and that is apparently who we see in the movie’s prologue being chased into the garage and presumably murdered), and the two become fast friends and it’s Julia who gives Terri the key to the garage where she finds more clues about the previous owner. Terri also looks into Marcus’ background as a personal trainer, visiting the gym where he works except … he does not work there and Terri is told that he’s a creep who isn’t even allowed in that gym, or any other gyms in town. This comes as a shock as she finally gave into his sexual advances — the two had been platonically sharing the house (although he made sure Terri saw him in the shower once) — and now she doesn’t know who to trust. Will she be able to unravel the web of lies before some terrible fate befalls her?
Seduced by His Lies is an okay thriller, but it would have worked better as a mystery if the title didn’t ruin it all because the only person who could be seducing and lying to Terri is Marcus. The story, by Al Kratina, spends so much time building Marcus up as a victim that when it’s revealed he’s part of a ring that includes not only Anne, but the lawyer as well, it should have been a much bigger moment. Instead we’re just left to ponder how long into the movie Terri will realize that her roomie, and potential love interest, is screwing with her. Probably the biggest surprise is when one other character is revealed to be part of the ring, and that was a much better kept secret that did cause eyebrows to raise. At that point you began to question if everyone was in on the plan. One thing that wasn’t clear — at least not to this viewer — was who Terri actually bought the house from. Was it a legit purchase, or was the whole thing a fraud from the beginning with Anne and her people just using the property to scam the buyer? And who killed the previous owner, and was that person the real owner of the house and was killed so the scammers could make their move, or was she a victim (in more ways than one) of Anne and company as well? And how didn’t Julia notice that her neighbor vanished and the house was on the market? A few too many plot holes here.
Lifetime
Despite the numerous questions, the cast all do great jobs at bringing their characters to life. Lauren Lee Smith makes for an engaging Terri, starting off as someone who is unsure of making the purchase to a woman determined to put the pieces of the puzzle together and at least get her money back if she doesn’t actually own the house. She manages to make Terri a character the audience can root for, and she thankfully isn’t written as someone who just rushes into dangerous situations, even though she does still put her trust in Marcus even knowing what she knows about him from the gym employee (it probably helps that the detective assures her he had run a background check on Marcus and he was clean). Smith gives Terri enough strength that she isn’t a damsel in distress who needs saving by a man. Christopher Russell is also very good as Marcus. Even though we all know he’s involved (thanks to whoever came up with the title), he still plays Marcus completely straight, always appearing to be in the same boat as Terri (although that smirk he gives the camera when he knows Terri has seen his buns on display in the shower makes us wonder what he’s up to). Perhaps his motives begin to become a little more questionable as he constantly tries to prevent Terri from getting herself into trouble, it really comes off more as him just looking out for her safety as they do seem to be developing a relationship closer than just accidental roommates. And even when Marcus’ truth is revealed, Russell still plays him as a man with feelings for the woman he was supposed to be scamming.
Diana Salvatore is terrific as Anne, playing nice with Terri at the open house but then revealing her ruthlessness as the story progresses. She also looks amazing with her signature fire engine red lipstick. Dillon Casey plays the typical TV movie detective, a man who seems constantly bothered by the victim he’s supposed to be helping, and even more exasperated when that victim decides to take things into her own hands, kind of making him look completely ineffective. But in this instance, he has reasons for behaving the way he does so it’s not as stereotypical of a performance as it seems at first. Simon Wong does a good job as the lawyer, trying to assure Terri and Marcus that they need to leave matters to the police and then getting desperate to get out of town as Terri begins to get closer to the truth and frustrated with Marcus for seeming to be falling for Terri, putting their plan in jeopardy. Darlene Cooke is also good as neighbor Julia, making the best of a character written as plot device — she’s either scatterbrained or a wealth of information — who can’t tell one blonde woman from another.
The film is directed well by Amy Force, who guides the actors with some nice precision, never letting the villains be so obvious to the viewer until their true characters are revealed. It’s just a shame the biggest plot twist — well, one of the biggest plot twists because there are a couple — is not a plot twist because of the title. They really need to work on that over at the network. Other than that, it’s a serviceable thriller with a decent story — and an original one because real estate fraud isn’t something in the Lifetime wheelhouse — and a terrific cast.
Seduced by His Lies has a run time of 1 hour 28 minutes, and is rated TV-14.