LMN
Star Vivica A. Fox and director David DeCoteau are back with another entry — the 28th! — in their ‘Wrong’ movie series, The Wrong Marriage. Fox again plays a different character than she did in the previous films, this time a defense attorney helping a friend escape from… the wrong marriage. And somehow they roped Jackée Harry into this mess too.
The Wrong Marriage stars Alicia S. Mason as Carrie, a young woman about to go on the run to escape her abusive — emotionally, not physically, she claims — husband, an ex-cop with friends on the force which is why she can’t go to the police and file a report. Kim (Fox) gets Carrie a fake ID and some other papers and sends her on her way. Carrie ends up seven hours away in Malibu, calling herself Maggie and the first place she stops at is a diner. Which is hiring! What are the odds? ‘Maggie’ asks for a job and the kind owner Meredith (Maria Tornberg) hires her on the spot (and there’s no pesky paperwork as we learn later, Meredith just pays her staff under the table in cash). Maggie also needs a place to stay and a fleabag hotel/hostel/boarding house (?) she goes to charges $200 — A NIGHT. Girl, there must be a La Quinta or Days Inn in Malibu you can stay at cheaper. But she ends up sleeping in her car, apparently in the driveway of the $200 a night flop house in a hilariously obvious day-for-night shot (the movie is filled with them because night shoots are more expensive), and reports to work the next day. A delivery guy, Kyle (Hector David Jr.), overhears Maggie’s conversation with co-worker Gina (Vera Lee) and offers up his mother’s guest house, which they have been unable to rent (the place is gorgeous, in Malibu, and has a pool and they can’t find a paying occupant?!?). Maggie accepts the offer and everything is going along smoothly. She enjoys her job, and Kyle is becoming a good friend, but she knows at some point the other shoe is going to drop.
And it does as Vicki (Jamie Bernadette), some friend/ex-girlfriend of Carrie’s ex-husband, although technically they are still married, Marc (Jeremiah Blakely), shows up at Carrie’s mother’s house and begins to ask all kinds of questions about Carrie’s whereabouts … to help her, of course. Mom Diane (Harry) is suspicious — even Vicki realizes her performance is less than convincing — but she truly does not know where Carrie is, a plan to keep both of them safe. Diane, though, does try to divert attention by suggesting one of her daughter’s favorite places is in Wisconsin so maybe she’s there. Unhappy with this outcome, Marc lets himself into Kim’s house and goes through her email, finding a picture of Carrie standing in front of the diner. Who basically in witness protection would send someone a picture of themselves readily identifying where they are?!?! Marc sends Vicki to Malibu and she again puts on a bad act of a wayward traveler needing a place to stay — it’s actually surprising that ‘Maggie’ didn’t invite the woman to stay with her for the night — and Vicki reports back to Marc that she’s found Carrie. And then shows concern that he might hurt her, but he tells Vicki that’s none of her concern. Knowing someone was in her house because her purse was open after she ran out and ran back in for no reason other than a plot device, Kim calls Carrie and begs her to come back and file a police report with a detective she trusts. Kim, why didn’t you just take Carrie to this detective in the first place instead of putting her, you, Diane and anyone else in Carrie’s periphery in danger?!?! Carrie agrees to come back, unaware she’s crossed paths with Marc who is now in Malibu, leaving one dead body in his wake. Vicki, still concerned about Marc’s intentions, calls him again to let him know Carrie is now back at Kim’s house, but even more concerned he might do something crazy. At this point it seems she might pull Carrie aside to warn her but, no, she just lets things happen. Carrie files the report, returns to Malibu the next day, deepens her relationship with Kyle, finds Meredith dead in the diner’s kitchen, and then finds Marc in her rental (he’s also apparently killed the cop who was stationed outside to keep an eye on the place). Will Carrie, Kyle and his mother make it out of this situation alive? Will Marc make it out alive? Does anyone care?
LMN
Friendly warning, there may be some unavoidable spoilers ahead.
The Wrong Marriage is an unintentionally funny drama. After 28 movies, it kind of feels like they’ve given up at this point and are subconsciously veering into parody territory. Right off the bat, one of the most outrageously wrong moments comes when Carrie arrives at Kim’s house and Kim offers her a cup of coffee. Kim goes to the kitchen and comes back with the coffee — IN A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT OUTFIT! I guess the budget didn’t allow for a continuity person, and no one could be bothered to run the video back to see what Vivica was wearing in the previous shot (did they have to shoot this scene on two different days?). It’s hard to take something seriously when they get something so wrong so early in the movie. The whole plot doesn’t make much sense either. Carrie is afraid to go to the police because she knows Marc’s friends will let him know she’s filed a report, and Kim helps her with a fake ID and stuff and then only later says she should go see her friend and file a report. Poor Meredith wouldn’t be dead if Kim had just done that at the beginning! And then all the convenient back-and-forth plot points where Carrie and Marc miss each other as they travel to and from Malibu. You have to wonder if writer Adam Rockoff just didn’t plug some key points into ChatGPT and let it compose the screenplay. The conclusion is also … bizarre. When Marc is at Carrie’s rental and Kyle shows up, Carrie won’t let him in so then his mother comes by, and standing with her back to the glass door Carrie tells her to go away. Any normal person would have at least made eye contact but for some reason this whole moment sends Marc over the edge and he pushes Carrie out of the way, opens the door and threatens the mother, giving Carrie enough time to find something to hit Marc in the head with. Except the way it’s filmed, she clearly doesn’t come close to his head, but the breeze knocked him out. The final moments are a shot of Marc seething in an interrogation room … and that’s it. Are they implying there’s going to be a sequel?
Oh, and if you watched the last movie in the series, The Wrong Obsession, you’ll recognize the same odd black-paneled office that is now the setting for Marc’s boss. And the exterior of the police station could also be the exterior of the office building from the previous movie as well with ‘Police’ Photoshopped on the top of the building. One of the movie’s most eye-rolling moments, and there are many, comes at the end when Kim gets to say to Carrie, ‘You were in the wrong marriage, ‘ just like she told her co-star in the last movie that they were in ‘the wrong obesssion’. I guess it’s required for Vivica to wrap up the story this way, but it’s so corny. At this point, they really need to do a The Office sort of thing and have her look directly at the camera, and maybe wink, after she says that line. After 28 movies, where can they possibly go next except for complete parody? Outer space?
The cast is a mixed bag with some actors apparently realizing this is pure nonsense and putting in very little effort, while other completely over-do it to try to make something of it, while some give decent performances despite the material. Alicia S. Mason is actually quite good as Carrie/Maggie. She makes the character relatable and sincere, a heroine we can root for to come out in top. Also really good is Maria Tornberg as Meredith. She may not have been given the best dialog at times, but she also gives Meredith a warmth and sincerity that would make anyone want to be her friend or employee, and we feel really sad when Marc shoots her. Vera Lee is also a good friend as Maggie’s co-worker Gina, although in another dumb plot point she never seems to have told her friend about the guy who stopped by the day before claiming to be her brother, and Carrie never bothers to show Gina a picture of Marc to see if she recognizes him. Early in the film, Marc is also spying on Carrie with a hidden camera in her house … and it’s the same exact camera that was used to spy on the characters in The Wrong Obsession. We even used an image of that camera in the review!
LMN
In the just okay category, Fox delivers her lines but it’s basically the same performance as the last film, putting very little effort into it but showing up and cashing that check. Harry is always overly concerned, but her interaction with Vicki almost has some humor to it, particularly when she brings up Wisconsin. Hector David Jr. does what he can with what he’s given to make Kyle a safe haven for Carrie/Maggie. While the character is written just a bit overly-attentive at first, David manages to make him not creepy. Silvia Baldassini also does a nice job as his mother, Ella, always checking in on Maggie and clearly seeing some sparks between her and Kyle.
On the other end of the spectrum, Blakely looks like he’d rather be anywhere else but in this movie, constantly seething with rage, gritting and baring his teeth to show how angry he is, snapping at both his co-worker and boss. If his goal was to make Marc completely unlikable, well, he completely succeeded. Meanwhile, Jamie Bernadette has probably the worst role in the movie. Is she an ex of Marc’s who is helping him try to get Carrie back when she clearly wants him to herself? Her performance as the fake cop, the way she asks her questions in such a disingenuous way is so annoying, and she is the same way when pretending to be a traveler who stopped at the diner. And then she keeps acting as Marc’s accomplice even though she knows he’s becoming dangerous and then … we never see her again after being ‘very concerned’ about what he might do. Seeing Vicki also hauled in by the police would have been immensely rewarding. Unfortunately these two performances make me hope I never see either of them in another Lifetime movie.
There’s not much to say about the direction. DeCoteau makes the best of his meager budget, but the costume continuity and the too numerous day-for-night shots, clearly shot in the afternoon with a blueish filter to make you think it’s night (every night is a full moon, it seems) just cheapen the film even more. And there’s even one moment when Gina is leaving the diner after closing, at 11:00 PM, and she walks out into complete daylight (someone forgot to add the blue filter apparently). It’s just sloppy all around, and frustrating. I would say it’s time to retire this series but why not just make two more so they can finish with a nice, round number of 30. Good for them but it will most likely get more torturous for the audience.
The Wrong Marriage has a run time of 1 hour 27 minutes, and is rated TV-14.
I noticed the lack of continuity too, lol. Both Marc and Carrie’s hair kept changing color. And didn’t Kim tell Carrie she set up in an apartment building with a lot of tenants? Why was she looking for a room? Otherwise, it wasn’t half bad
I believe the scene you are referring to in the beginning (wher Kim disappears to get coffee and come back with different clothes) is supposed to be the next day. Carrie is also wearing different clothes and I don’t think she would have all those fake ID’s ready that fast.
That’s even worse because besides a shot of the outside of the building there’s no indication that any time had passed so it just looks like a continuity error. I assumed Kim knew Carrie was coming and had the ID and papers ready so she could get on the road. I didn’t notice Carrie’s clothes at first because her top was about the same color, but looking back at it I do see one top is a V-neck.