In 2019's When Vows Break, Ella (Christa B. Allen - Revenge) is in an abusive relationship with Tolan (Jacob Young - Bold and the Beautiful), both physically and verbally. After about a year of being together, they decide to get married. Ella's sister Lydia (Danielle C. Ryan - Stalked by My Mother, Criminal Minds) has reservations about the whole thing, especially about Tolan.
To help relieve her mind, she visits a fortune teller named Madame Diedra (Milena Phillips). During their session, Madame Diedra states that she sees dark waters. This statement becomes significant later in the movie, but I promise not to give anything away.
Ella asks her sister numerous time to be happy for her, paraphrasing of course, and to let her and Tolan be. Lydia complies, against her better judgment and just wanting to protect her sister.
Their honeymoon is spent in Barbados on a boat. A nice boat I might add. Oh, I should add that Tolan has money. Not only does he have money, but he's also rich, for only rich people can have their own private jet always on stand by at the airport. While walking on the boat, Ella loses her balance and falls overboard. As corny as that sounds, and as familiar as that sounds, that's exactly what happens.
Learning of her sister's death, Lydia feels that it wasn't an accident and that Tolan killed her sister and thus begins her quest to find out what really happened in Barbados upon the boat.
ALLEN (Ella) AND RYAN (Lydia): I enjoyed Christa B. Allen when she played Charlotte Grayson on Revenge from 2011-2015. As for Danielle C. Ryan, I didn't recognize anything she's done, therefore, prior to this movie, I can't comment on her work. As for When Vows Break I did enjoy her acting. Ryan and Sam Boxleitner (yes, the son of Bruce Boxleitner) who played her husband Harrison, had good chemistry together. As for Allen and Jacob Young (who played Tolan), I didn't see much chemistry. They were an odd pair and that's probably why they were together. Tolan seemed way above her pay grade. Perhaps he saw someone he could manipulate and push around, which he did.
Allen played the "I know he's no good for me, but I love him" role really well. She made you feel sorry for her, while at the same time, you hoped she falls flat on her face.
JACOB YOUNG (Tolan): Jacob Young brought the role of Rick Forrester to life on Bold and the Beautiful. Not only is he incredibly good looking, to me, but he's a good actor, and this role will prove it. His acts of abuse (we saw mostly verbal than physical abuse) were scary to the point of you could almost dislike the actor and not the character. Very few actors have had this effect on me. The first being Judd Hirsh (Taxi) when he played a rapist in 1990's She Said No and Ted Danson (Cheers, CSI) who played a child molester in 1984's Something About Amelia.
Young has the type of face and acting chops to play both nice characters and bad characters and still come out unscathed. I look forward to more work by him
FINAL THOUGHTS:The movie as a whole was good, until the ending. There's nothing like a horrible ending to make you curse the whole movie and time you feel you have wasted watching. Up until the end, the ride was a good one and so many twists were there.
Would I recommend this movie? I really can't say. Only because I like endings with a bit more teeth in it. I want to leave a movie having deep thoughts about what took place or what didn't take place. I don't like endings wrapped in a bow. I like ending wrapped in meat and potatoes.
