Ann Rule's Circle of Deception

The book was much better than the movie! Too many plot holes and continuity skips makes this one a hard sell to watch. Diane Neal;'s performance was quite over the top but better than all of the Canadian actors combined!

This can't possibly be a Lifetime movie because:

1) the two lead actresses weren't built like anorexic pre-teens - they actually looked like real women, old enough to be the mothers of the usual little girl lead actresses that star in most all LMN movies

2) the houses of the characters weren't massive mansions that looked more like fancy hotels/resorts than homes

3) there were several appropriately placed curse words that sounded like real people actually talk

4) it wasn't the usual over-the-top formula LMN 'psycho stalks and terrorizes and manipulates clueless good girl/guy' flick

5) it was well-acted all around and well-directed

I realize it was a true crime story and it was done as thoroughly as possible, given the complexity of the case and plethora of details in the actual case that had to be trimmed down to an hour and thirty-six minutes, so a lot of the details had to be left out. Surprisingly, though, it was still pretty riveting and held my attention to the end. Kudos to the female director - we need more women directors!

6 out of 10 / Grade C

Interesting that Diane Neill, who used to start in law and order, is in this I understand that she's bigger now, but what I truly disliked about that movie and she's a lot bigger now but that's not the issue. What I'm talking about is she has a very good friend, business partner, who is actually smaller weight wise than her, but she said to her, I used to be a chubby chunker too , really somebody who is whining in real life about her weight. Now it has to do with medication she was on the head steroids in it, and then a car accident where she supposedly broke her spine and that's why she gained weight but then she's snot at others about weight at least 100 pounds when she was on law and order. It's truly a disgusting movie.

Very disappointing movie. The story line was good but acting was horrible.

This is the first Lifetime movie we have watched and were unfamiliar with the true story or book. We quite enjoyed the movie and plan to watch others. Diane Neal did a good job.