Movie Review :: Lifetime Movie Network’s There’s No Way Out

LMN

LMN’s themed movies for the month of April are presented under the ‘Home is Where the Harm Is’ banner, and the husband-wife producers Marcus Rosner and Alison Kroeker (among others) are back after the delightfully charming Engaged by Christmas, but with a decidedly darker theme this time.

There’s No Way Out centers around two sisters, Juniper (Emily James) and Briar (Alayna Edwards), who stumble into the middle of a softball game and collapse on the field. Concerned citizens get them to the hospital and it’s discovered the younger sister, Briar, has tuberculosis (which was either very advanced or cleared up in a couple of days with antibiotics). Having obviously suffered some trauma in their young lives and unwilling to tell anyone where they came from, nurse Shannon (Elizabeth Longshaw) quickly volunteers to bring the girls home while CPS figures things out just so they don’t get lost in the system and separated. Her contractor husband Rob (Rosner) things it’s a bit much to bring these girls into their home but he’s willing to get on board for a few days (and the house is HUGE so there’s plenty of room for everyone … and it begs the question what kind of salary do nurses in Lifetime movies have because the last one with a nurse, Don’t Scream, It’s Me!, also had her living in a designer home with a ton of property). What they don’t know is that the girls’ father was somehow stalking them at the hospital, how he knew exactly where they were is unclear, and he also managed to track them back to Shannon and Rob’s castle (a moat would have solved all their problems). A few days later, a hearing finds that returning the girls to their biological parents is still problematic, so Shannon and Rob are granted continued temporary custody. The girls have a hard time adjusting, and it doesn’t help that Stephen (Stafford Perry) and his wife Holly (Nikki Rae Hallow) just keep lurking around the shrubbery in the hope that the girls will try to sneak out (and they do, particularly Briar).

Juniper begins to adjust to her new trauma-free life, excels at school and even has a crush. Briar just wants to go home, and after sneaking out again one night and running into mom and dad, it’s clear they’ve groomed her to believe everyone on the outside world is bad, and these people she’s with are going to poison her with their food. And then they just leave her in the middle of some strange neighborhood — as a set up to make Rob and Shannon look bad. The sisters begin to butt heads because Juniper does not want to go back to her parents in the middle of the woods, but Briar sneaks out again and her parents take her this time. Juniper begs Rob and Shannon to not call the police, only she can get to them and save Briar but Rob is having none of that and is definitely going alone. And then all three arrive at the edge of the forest under cover of darkness, and with a map drawn by Juniper Rob is about to go. But he’s not going alone and the three walk for … days(?) because it is the middle of the afternoon by the time they get to the cabin in the woods, despite Stephen’s booby traps in the woods but will they be able to save Briar without anyone getting seriously injured or killed? Or will the police show up out of nowhere to save the day?

There’s No Way Out is one of the more absurd titled LMN has slapped on a movie. Most of the time they are simply descriptive like Trapped in Her Dorm Room, but this one makes no sense. There’s no way out of what? The girls are out of the situation they were in with their parents. The artwork does its best to imply the girls, and Shannon, are trapped and dirty but that is not the movie’s reality. It’s also a bit frustrating that the girls have obviously suffered some trauma (Juniper flinches any time someone touches her) but no one, no counselor or doctor or social worker, ever sits them down to ask what happened or show them on the doll where they were hurt. Just hand them over to this couple who happened to be on an adoption wait list. It’s also outlandish that Stephen, a man who lives completely off the grid in the middle of nowhere, always finds his daughters, and that he and Holly seem to wait in the bushes every night for the girls to wander out of the house. Then he goes around, in pretty much plain sight of anyone in the vicinity but completely unseen — especially at the hospital — and does crazy things like an attempted electrocution of Rob at his job site (how did Stephen know anything about where Rob was working?), and injecting morphine into a patient’s IV bag — casually grabbing a vial and syringe from a rack in the hallway — in an attempt to frame Shannon as an irresponsible nurse. Does the hospital not have security cameras, and can Shannon not speak up for herself?!?!!? It’s just all very, very contrived.

LMN

The performances are fine for the most part, with even a few standouts. Emily James is quite good as Juniper, the high school girl who had to grow up real quick to save her sister. Her transition from almost feral to trusting of Shannon and Rob, as well as fitting in at school, feels completely natural, and she has some nice moments with Alayna Edwards as Briar. Edwards is also good playing the more troubled of the sisters, doing a nice job of conveying what can only be described as being groomed or having Stockholm Syndrome. Elizabeth Longshaw, in just her second TV movie, is fine as Shannon, giving off some good motherly vibes, always calm, cool and collected even when things are going sideways. Rosner, who was charming in the Christmas movie, is a bit all over the place here. One minute he’s fine taking in the girls, the next he’s fighting with Shannon about the responsibility he didn’t sign up for, and then he’s back to being more like a big brother than father to the girls.

Nikki Rae Hallow is actually a bright spot as Holly. She doesn’t have much to say, but she speaks volumes with her expressions and body language, conveying that she is just as much a victim to Stephen as her daughters are, at times (when the script allows) almost wanting her daughters to stay with Shannon so she knows they will be safe. And she gets a nice redemption moment at the end. The other standout, but not in such a positive way, is Stafford Perry who plays Stephen completely over-the-top, constantly baring his upper teeth in the most ridiculous way. The character is almost supernatural in the way he gets from place to place, knowing where people are. Perry plays Stephen as a total fanatic (and his behavior is actually explained, so kudos to the screenwriter for that) and it could have been a decent performance. But the teeth thing is so distracting that it takes away from the actual performance.

Screenwriter Courtney Cilman turns out a slightly better script here than she did for Date at Your Own Risk, but this one has some of the same issues like making characters do absurd things, mainly Stephen, with no rhyme or reason. Juniper and Holly are the two best written characters in the movie. Director Dylan Pearce, also the director of Engaged by Christmas does a fine job of keeping the story moving while ignoring the more silly plot points involving Stephen and his activities. The movie is just all over the place with some highs and lows and while it isn’t the worst of LMN’s output, it’s far from the best but some of the performances save it. Now if someone could just make sense of the title.

There’s No Way Out has a run time of 1 hour 30 minutes, and is rated TV-PG.