A DAUGHTER'S REVENGE (TV movie 2018)
4.3 out of 10 stars Time to Read: 3:35 min
WARNING: Depicts suicidal behavior & suicide
BASIC PLOT:
Michelle Spencer (
Claire Rankin) and her daughter Elle (
Jessica Sipos) have always had a close relationship, too close to be healthy. Michelle never got over being abandoned by Elle's father, and in her current relationship with David Spencer (
Linden Ashby), she's become a nervous, jealous, clingy shrew. She's convinced David is cheating, and she's indoctrinated Elle with this false narrative too. Michelle is also taking drugs, making her more unstable with every passing day.
Michelle's mental instability finally reaches an untenable crescendo one morning, and she uses a gun to commit suicide. She's found by her husband and daughter, both are devastated. But for Elle, a piece of herself is now gone, and it's a piece she must recreate.
Elle starts seeing and hearing her mother, who fills her head with machinations, designed to punish David for his imagined transgressions.
To complete her plans, Elle needs a scapegoat. She knows who she'll use for her patsy, an old friend she recently reconnected with, Anna Bellcroft (
Sierra Wooldridge). Anna has no family, and her current troubles make her an ideal candidate for Elle's plans.
Anna made a terrible mistake on her twenty-first birthday, she drove intoxicated, and had a serious accident. She was convicted of felony DWI, and had to serve a prison sentence. Elle thinks Anna's current predicament will make her the perfect fall guy.
Can Anna discover Elle's plans in time to save herself from destruction?
WHAT WORKS:
*THE NAMES MICHELLE AND ELLE REALLY WORK It shows the mother's unhealthy relationship with her daughter, and adds to the believability of their dysfunction.
*THE ACTING IS ABOVE AVERAGE FOR A MADE-FOR-TV MELODRAMA All of the acting is fine for this type of movie. The standouts are
Linden Ashby and
Jessica Sipos, who does a great job as crazy Elle.
WHAT DOESN'T WORK:
*WHY WOULD ELLE SUDDENLY HATE ANNA? A few nights ago, they reconnected, and were having a great time together. They were obviously good friends growing up, so why is Elle willing and able to betray Anna? They needed to work Anna into Elle's delusion somehow, otherwise, Elle suddenly hating/betraying Anna, after fifteen years of friendship, doesn't make any sense. Why not have Michelle, Elle's mother, kill herself (no spoiler, it's in the description) because she thinks her husband is cheating, and because she can't get ahold of her daughter, because she's out partying with Anna? That would give Elle a motive against them both, then the movie works, and makes more sense.
*WHY IS CAMMY SO OBSESSED WITH ANNA? Most people don't give a whit about anyone else, unless they're given a reason. In other words, Cammy wouldn't go snooping about Anna, unless Anna gave her a reason to, and she doesn't. This pushes Cammy's snooping into the realm of a deus ex machina, and throws the viewer out. Let Cammy see Anna's parole officer's card, when she spills her purse, THEN Cammy would have a reason to be suspicious. It would take two seconds, and the audience wouldn't be asking, "What's wrong with Cammy? How come she's unbelievably nosy?" Problem solved! Side note: Poor people wouldn't butt into their rich employer's lives. They wouldn't risk their job, and because Cammy's mother also works for David, she's risking her mother's job too. NO ONE WOULD DO THAT!
*WHY IS THERE STILL A PRISON PASS IN ELLE'S CAR, MONTHS AFTER ANNA'S RELEASE? And again, why is Cammy so nosy? She's an assistant, and obviously Anna is important to her bosses, so wouldn't she leave well enough alone? Also, Elle seems like the type of person who gets her car detailed once a week while she's getting her hair and nails done, so shouldn't Cammy wonder why a months old prison visitors pass is still sitting there, in plain sight, for her to find? I would.
*AREN'T PEOPLE ON PAROLE FOR DWI NOT ALLOWED TO DRINK ALCOHOL? Yet Anna eagerly accepts a drinks invitation with Elle.
*MARGY WOULD KNOW SHE DIDN'T LEAVE THE GAS ON HIGH, ON ALL FOUR STOVE BURNERS She's a house cleaner, she'd know she didn't turn on the gas, or leave the alarm off, so why does she take responsibility, instead of warning David about someone being in his house? Also, why didn't she see Elle's car in the driveway when she can back for her forgotten wallet?
*FANCY HOTELS HAVE CAMERAS AT THE BAR to prevent bartenders from stealing, and to prevent drinks from being tampered with. If you thought you'd been drugged, you'd call hotel security, they would check the feed, game over! None of the motivations here are believable, and it ruins, what could have been a great melodrama! Also, the police are able to retrieve camera footage from the hotel hallways later, so why don't they go all the way back, and look at the bar? (Would the camera footage even still be available? Don't they overwrite the footage after a month?)
*WHY DOES ANNA THINK DAVID BLAMES HER FOR BEING DRUGGED AGAINST HER WILL? Again and again, Anna says David will be upset with her for being drugged by a stranger at a bar. WHY?! He has a stepdaughter her age, wouldn't he simply be upset, angry and scared, at the thought of the same thing happening to his stepdaughter? Isn't this why he would have gone to hotel security, and demanded action?
*WHAT ARE THE PILLS MICHELLE AND ELLE ARE TAKING? We know Michelle was taking pills, and we later see Elle take Michelle's pills, but we never see what they are. It would be helpful to know what she's taking, and if it would cause her to hallucinate.
*I'M SICK OF THE POLICE ARE IDIOTS PLOTLINE Police are NOT STUPID! They wouldn't simply take one girl's word over another, especially since the girl being accused had no violence in her history. Being convicted of a DWI, barely over the limit, on your 21st birthday, does not make you Charles Manson. Any cop would know this, and they would suspect both girls equally, since they were both in the house. Both girls have a motive (one is fabricated), and they would take this into consideration. POLICE ARE NOT STUPID!
*THE MAID IS A SORTA ALIBI, WHY DIDN'T CHARLIE & ANNA GET HER NAME? Her defense attorney would need the woman's name, so why didn't they ask?
*I'M MORE THAN IRRITATED WHEN THE POLICE SAY ANNA IS STILL THE PRIME SUSPECT, EVEN THOUGH ANNA HAS SENT ENOUGH EVIDENCE TO THE POLICE TO GET HER AN ACQUITTAL At this point, the script falls apart because NO COP WOULD SAY THAT! Again, police are NOT STUPID! Please stop including this plotline in these made-for-tv scripts
Andrea Canning &
Elizabeth Stuart (the writers). Furthermore, it looks racists to railroad the black woman, because the police can't be bothered to do their job. It's also NOT NEEDED, and again RUINS an otherwise decent melodrama.
TO RECOMMEND, OR NOT TO RECOMMEND, THAT IS THE QUESTION:
*These types of mistakes make me sad, because they ruin the overall idea. This could have been a decent low budget melodrama, but it fails because the writers,
Andrea Canning &
Elizabeth Stuart, don't take their character's motivations into consideration, or give them believable ones. It's still better than most new
Lifetime Movie Network (LMN) faire, but could have been sooooo much better with a little tweaking. Only watch if you can tolerate unforgivable plotholes, and if you like low budget, made-for-tv melodramas. Otherwise, steer clear.
CLOSING NOTES:
*THIS IS A MADE-FOR-TV MOVIE, please keep that in mind before you watch/rate it. TV movies have a much lower budget, and so your expectations should be adjusted.
*I HAVE NO CONNECTION TO THE FILM, or production in ANY way. This review was NOT written in full, or in part, by a bot. I am just an honest viewer, who wishes for more straight forward reviews (less trolls and fanboys), and better entertainment. Hope I helped you out.
