This movie is disgusting. Not in an ew gross kind of way, but morally reprehensible. I think it's crazy how some women will bring a man who they've only been dating for a short amount of time into their home when they have kids. The guy could be a pervert, on drugs, have a criminal record - anything. There's no other explanation for someone putting their feelings over their children's safety other than selfishness. The Sweetheart (or the alternate title, Dating a Sociopath. That's an outdated term, by the way) was such a pain to get through that I didn't even watch it to the end. But I watched a large enough portion of it to know that I had wasted too much of my time. It's absolute garbage.
Samantha and Paul (Jessalyn Gilsig and Scott Gibson) are a married couple living in a beautiful house, and both driving luxury cars, but their life is far from a fairytale. They're always fighting. One night when he picks up their teenage daughter, Jane (Hannah Vandenbygaarl), from hanging out with a friend, his cell phone rings, he answers it, but of course he's not paying attention, leading him to run a red light and a stop sign. Unfortunately, when he goes through the stop sign another car hits them on the passenger side. Jane is badly injured, and needs physical therapy. Her life starts going downhill when she comes home from the hospital to discover her dad has moved out. She has a close relationship with him, so she's understandably sad and confused. It doesn't help that her mom keeps springing one unpleasant surprise on her after another. She introduces Jane to her personal trainer, Brain (Jon Cor). Not long after, he starts occupying their living space, eventually sleeping with her mom. Meanwhile, her dad is living in a hotel and drinking every day. The film really starts to get disturbing when Brian switches Jane's pain medication with a placebo while she's sleeping, then puts the real ones back later on. He kept a Ziploc bag of prescriptions in his car. He also orders her an alcoholic drink when they go out for lunch, all her mom's idea. Somehow, he convinced the server that she was 21. I should've stopped watching then. She develops an addiction to her meds, and her health is even worsened by having mixed them with alcohol. She's feeling so out of sorts, that she has difficulty taking her college entrance exam. When Jane and her friend take it upon themselves to do their own detective work, that's when I turned it off. Her mom was getting romantic with another man, while still married to her father. They were just separated. It got on my nerves so much, that I didn't even care to know how it ended.
This movie is proof of why I don't think women should always be given custody of their kids in divorce cases (yes, I'm a woman who feels this way). There are some who put their kids in danger. I know the couple in the story wasn't divorced, but it was a similar situation. Jane and her little sister would've been safer with their dad than their mom. Dumb is an understatement for Samantha. You're married to a man who loves both you and his kids, but yet, you're going to stress him out so bad that he goes to live somewhere else. And then on top of that, getting angry when he comes around, as well as letting another man move in, who you really don't know, and you have 2 daughters? That's exactly why the film was annoying me. So is this realistic? Well, yes and no. People do stupid stuff like this all of the time. But, due to it being a product of Lifetime, it's overexaggerated. There was just too much conflict for me, and all of it was caused by Samantha. Jane's addiction wouldn't have even started if she hadn't allowed that freak to get so comfortable in their house. My recommendation, is to avoid. This is one of those Lifetime movies that will make you mad.
