A Criminal Affair

College students Julia and Erin are creating a criminal profile for their criminology class and meet with their subject, Cole, a man who claims he is falsely imprisoned for a crime he did not commit. Julia is skeptical of Cole, but Erin quickly becomes engrossed with his charming demeanor. But when the girls' professor, Dr. Stone, learns who the subject of their research is, she cautions them to be mindful of Cole's infamously manipulative tactics to gain researchers' trust to prove his innocence. Julia heeds their professor's warning, but Erin throws caution to the wind and sleeps with Cole once he's released from prison. When Erin goes missing, Julia starts a frantic search to find her.

Lifetime thrillers get a bad rap for the simple plot and acting but this entry is quite good, has enough hooks and layers of character twist to pull you in. Not all what it seems - is Cole a master manipulator or an innnocent?

This was an alright film as far as the made for tv films go. It even had a good twist which is something these films fail at. But like all of this films they share a common bond, that is the terrible script and cringey acting at points. I have to say though all the cast members did well with what they had and gave passable performances. Savvy shay and taylor jabara play the two students that get caught up in all the trouble after a felon they went to interview gets let out of prison. He is played by jacob taylor and the three give somewhat realistic performances. The detective in this was played by terry woodberry and his character was actually pretty smart which usually they are not in these films. Overall a bit of a chessy thriller but still enjoyable to watch.

Decent acting, pretty good plot with a twist that is not completely obvious. There are some typical tropes throughout, but after a series of truly awful recent movies this one is a decent watch.

You'll know from the TV Guide write up on what the major plot points are - - but the last 15 minutes revealed one of the biggest plot twists I've seen in a long time.

Once again this is set in the "Lifetime Universe" where all sorts of unlikely things happen, like.....

1. College students visiting potentially dangerous prisoners, and the setting looks like High School.

2. Prisoners getting almost AUTOMATICALLY released from prison once someone else confesses to the crime.

3. A COLLEGE STUDENT finding new clues to a crime that has been reviewed and re-reviewed by Police.

I really did not expect what is revealed at the ending, so I suggest you give it a look.....

7/10.

Julia and Erin have been assigned a project to track down a handsome convict and interview him for their college criminal science project. Conveniently, he's released shortly after serving 12 years but Julia doesn't think he committed the murder and goes on a hunt to track down the real killer. Movie holds up rather well with a good script and good acting. Definitely recommended.