Sleeping with Danger

OMG, this movie brought back a lot issues even for me.

The lead plays an intelligent, experienced woman who wants to make positive changes in her life. But, like so many LMN women, she falls into the sack with someone she barely knows and obviously knows nothing about his past. The clue bus gave her plenty of opportunities to take a ride and arrive in a better place, but she keeps going back no matter what.

To paraphrase the movie airplane: "Shana, she bought her ticket, she knew what she was getting into. I say let her crash."

This was more like a real movie than a Lifetime movie. It was actually very good. The acting was surprisingly good. Not a perfect script but it held my interest. The plot holes are acceptable because this was based on a true story. And truth is always stranger than fiction. My only real complaint was the climax was more or less jammed into the last couple minutes. They could have compressed the first hour to make more room in the end. Overall, I'm impressed.

Grace Tanner (Elisabeth Röhm) falls for her alternative medicine doctor Paul Carter (Antonio Cupo). It develops into a full romance, but underlying issues balloon into a run for her life.

This is a Lifetime movie. At least, they bought the distribution. It's their standard woman-in-danger plot. It's all very standard and very second-rate. I like Röhm over the years but she does come off a little cool. The biggest issue is the male lead. I don't know much about him. He seems to be a veteran TV actor. I probably seen him before, but I wouldn't know. In addition, the character is too bland. I get the idea of transformation from nice guy to possessive creep. They just really need a good meet-cute. It can't be as boring this one. I don't care that this copies every other one of these movies. I just want it to be good.

Okay, I straight up have to admit that I have recently become addicted to these Lifetime "inspired by true events" movies. They have this melodramatic formula, but it works in terms of making you care what the outcome will be. In this case, I like Elizabeth Rohm, and her character seems like one who would never put up with abuse, thus showing that it can happen to anyone, even those who think they would never tolerate abuse. It shows how easy it is to rationalize staying in such a relationship. For that reason, I find this film's message to be valuable, and the performances believable. I actually think it would be valuable to allow women in abusive relationships watch this and discuss it in a group therapy situation.