Lifetime
Lifetime has wasted no time in shutting down the holiday spirit, not even taking us into the new year with some light-hearted nonsense. Nope, we’re back to the crime dramas and ending the year of 2024 is The Last Thing She Said, which feels kind of dumped on an unsuspecting public as there is little-to-no publicity for this movie.
The story centers on Kate Winslow, a young woman who gets a new, badly needed job after a recommendation from a friend. Things move very quickly with her boss Eric asking her to join him on a new, very important project which will also help build her resumé in the company. It may also require some late nights, but that’s fine because Kate just blurts out that she’s single and has no life. She’s also quickly befriended by the office cleaning lady Maria and her son Stephan, and Kate also over-shares her life story with this woman she’s just met. Feeling that poor Kate needs a date, Maria pushes Stephan to bring her flowers and ask her out, but Eric steps in and reminds the cleaning crew to remember their place and not ask his employees out. And he fires Stephan. That just gives him time to become an HR nightmare with Maria as a witness to his pawing of Kate, assuring her that she is willing to speak up for her if she wants to bring this matter to the company or authorities. Kate refuses because she needs the job.
As she’s about to go home that night, a shadowy figure in the back seat of her car knocks her out, and she wakes up later shackled to a bed in a windowless room. Did Eric kidnap her to get back at rejecting his advances? Was it her ex-boyfriend Matt, who was at Kate’s apartment the night Eric gave her a ride home when her car was in the shop? Was it Janet, the woman who helped Kate set up her work information in the company’s computer system, obviously upset that Eric has another pretty, young thing set up in an office Janet should have? Or was it Stephan, upset that Kate shut him down, or Maria, who just wants her boy to be loved?
There are a lot of suspects here but the movie wastes no time in keeping us guessing, revealing the culprit very early on (although there are moments of misdirection to make us consider other potential culprits). Where it becomes a bit complicated and frustrating is when Kate’s friend drags Eric to the police to file a missing person’s report, with Eric implicating either Matt or Maria and Stephan … which only makes the cops suspicious that Eric is the kidnapper. There is a bit of unprofessionalism on display with the police that also makes things frustrating. New detective Josh Wilson is on friendly terms with Maria, who gives him and other officers baked good for keeping an eye on the buildings she and Stephan are cleaning at night. Knowing he’s close to potential suspects should have had his captain, Detective Ann Davis, remove him from the case because his judgment is potentially clouded. He, in fact, stands up for Maria and Stephan several times, but Davis never once asks him to step away from the case.
Lifetime
Kylee Bush stars as Kate, and she does a decent job of portraying the young woman going through her kidnapping ordeal. She is also resourceful, very easily using bobby pins she found in her dungeon bathroom to unlock her handcuffs. Several times, although she can’t seem to get a door unlocked (while Matt seems skilled in doing just that as we see later in the movie). Bush at least makes us root for Kate to find a way out of her dire situation, which also includes an unwanted pregnancy. Jill Teed starts off fine, but the way she plays Maria seems like she’s always acting, especially when it comes to her being questioned by the police. It’s maddening that the detectives can’t seem to understand how badly she’s acting when they question her about Kate, and she behaves even more suss when they try to question Stephan, always jumping in to answer for him (because he’s shy, she claims). Teed does provide us with one completely jolting moment when she hauls off and smacks Stephan upside the head. But her overall performance is uneven and she never has an ounce of sincerity in anything she says.
Tyler Cody is okay as Matt and steps up to figure out where Kate is, thanks to some intel from Eric, but he is taken out of the equation before he can find her (although he does find her charm bracelet). Lucas Penner is actually quite good as Stephan, playing him just awkward enough (with a bizarre haircut) that makes him alternately endearing and disturbing, sometimes coming off as an over-grown man-child, probably because of the abuse he suffered at the hands of his father (and now mother). Curtis Lovell is genial as Detective Wilson, putting his new position on the line by defending Maria. Jonathan Hawley Purvis is appropriately slimy as boss Eric, who could have easily avoided some legal issue if he’d drop the attitude, instead painting himself as the Number One Suspect. His real-life wife Alana Hawley Purvis play Detective Davis as someone who only knows how police behave on TV, always with a tough, superior attitude while never feeling like a real cop.
The story, by Don Woodman, constructs the mystery pretty well with more than enough red herrings to throw us off. Unfortunately some of the acting choices, perhaps suggested by director Danny J. Boyle (not to be confused with Danny Boyle, director of films like Shallow Grave, Trainspotting, The Beach and 28 Days Later), just want to make you tell at the TV. It might have helped to have kept Kate’s captor a secret until much later in the story so we could still try to guess who the culprit is. As it stands, The Last Thing She Said is an okay thriller with some wacky plot devices and too-obvious acting, saved by its lead but undone a bit by revealing the kidnapper much too early.
The Last Thing She Said has a run time of 1 hour 30 minutes, and is rated TV-14.
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