The only reason I tuned into this was because I saw Erin C on the tv guide entry. I like her on Hallmark, and even though Lifetime is generally sketch (see Hallmark Cindy Busby vs Lifetime Cindy Busby), I decided to watch. Once the movie started, I saw a few other faces (Antonio et al) I recognized which kept me watching. Can we address the music? It's so loud in the "suspenseful" scenes. In movies such as Psycho or Jaws, it's the intensity of what you're viewing PLUS the music that makes the music as impactful as it is. Not music that is as loud as the dialogue basically telling you something is about to happen. I'm going to finish this movie, but the dialogue is so cringe. The lady detective says "we gotta find this guy before we have another body on our hands." YA THINK? Not to mention this guy is a serial killer who apparently took a break (they already knew his "call sign") so how many bodies have they collected already?
I hate this trope of "don't tell the police your child has been kidnapped." Unless you are Liam Neeson, it's annoying. Who would take in Amanda's nervous, uncharacteristic behavior and just believe the kid ran away? Then when it comes out that the father did not have him, it's just like "ok! This is fine!" Amanda is such an idiot because the longer the kid is gone, the harder it will be to find him. How does she not know that? She's not even independently looking for him.
I find it pretty crappy that they gave her an ex-husband only to kill him and leave the kid even more fatherless (when the dad wants to make up for his mistakes). Nice going Lifetime. It's hard to sympathize with Amanda when she knowingly lies, falsely accuses dad, gets him arrested, and ultimately gets Dad killed. Lifetime makes it difficult to root for their "heroines" more often than you'd think for a "women's" channel. OH! I'm on the part where not speaking up is going to get her best friend killed. I'm starting to hate this movie. Even after the best friend is murdered, she is STILL lying to law enforcement. She does nothing smart here.
I knew who the villain was because of a recap, but you can see through the mask w/o even zooming in. I sometimes like when the villains are openly terrorizing which saves us from being trolled. Here you're just like "Well, DUH!" How do you just forget someone yet spend SOOOOO much time around them and NOTHING clicks? At no point does Amanda feel deja vu or a sense of familiarity. She lets the villain around her son, the villain knows where she works and lives, and the villain knows her best friend. It's bizarre. There are pictures of them within the vicinity of each other, and yet the movie does not make it clear if she rejected him or didn't know he existed. Nothing justifies why he was obsessed enough to kill. Also, how would a very basic background check not reveal a name change? During the villainous monologue, we find out the villain knew the ex-husband back then as well...why did no one recognize him at the gallery? There was also a bit of dialogue during one of Amanda's calls with the villain that I thought would come up again, and it doesn't. Missed opportunity for her to realize sooner who took her son. The investigation is also garbage. Even after her bizarre behavior at the station, not once do they follow her. Even after she lies on the father and they treat him like crap do they bring her in for questioning. At least two of the victims were killed in places where the villain should have left boot prints. At no point were the Keystone Cops ever close to catching a serial killer they allegedly were tracking already.
Of course at the end, in spite of getting two people killed and endangering her child, the protag gets a love interest in the FBI agent. Unfortunately, although I like them both, Erin and Antonio do not have much chemistry with this script. I'd like to see them in a Hallmark romcom together and I'm sure it would be better. Maybe it can be a Wedding March flick so the villain (Duke in the Wedding March series) can be there too lol. I realize this movie is from 2018, but skip it. A better movie than this, which ironically has the dead best friend as the detective, is My Husband's Killer Girlfriend. At least that mother worked w/her ex to find their daughter without any innocents biting it.
I hate this trope of "don't tell the police your child has been kidnapped." Unless you are Liam Neeson, it's annoying. Who would take in Amanda's nervous, uncharacteristic behavior and just believe the kid ran away? Then when it comes out that the father did not have him, it's just like "ok! This is fine!" Amanda is such an idiot because the longer the kid is gone, the harder it will be to find him. How does she not know that? She's not even independently looking for him.
I find it pretty crappy that they gave her an ex-husband only to kill him and leave the kid even more fatherless (when the dad wants to make up for his mistakes). Nice going Lifetime. It's hard to sympathize with Amanda when she knowingly lies, falsely accuses dad, gets him arrested, and ultimately gets Dad killed. Lifetime makes it difficult to root for their "heroines" more often than you'd think for a "women's" channel. OH! I'm on the part where not speaking up is going to get her best friend killed. I'm starting to hate this movie. Even after the best friend is murdered, she is STILL lying to law enforcement. She does nothing smart here.
I knew who the villain was because of a recap, but you can see through the mask w/o even zooming in. I sometimes like when the villains are openly terrorizing which saves us from being trolled. Here you're just like "Well, DUH!" How do you just forget someone yet spend SOOOOO much time around them and NOTHING clicks? At no point does Amanda feel deja vu or a sense of familiarity. She lets the villain around her son, the villain knows where she works and lives, and the villain knows her best friend. It's bizarre. There are pictures of them within the vicinity of each other, and yet the movie does not make it clear if she rejected him or didn't know he existed. Nothing justifies why he was obsessed enough to kill. Also, how would a very basic background check not reveal a name change? During the villainous monologue, we find out the villain knew the ex-husband back then as well...why did no one recognize him at the gallery? There was also a bit of dialogue during one of Amanda's calls with the villain that I thought would come up again, and it doesn't. Missed opportunity for her to realize sooner who took her son. The investigation is also garbage. Even after her bizarre behavior at the station, not once do they follow her. Even after she lies on the father and they treat him like crap do they bring her in for questioning. At least two of the victims were killed in places where the villain should have left boot prints. At no point were the Keystone Cops ever close to catching a serial killer they allegedly were tracking already.
Of course at the end, in spite of getting two people killed and endangering her child, the protag gets a love interest in the FBI agent. Unfortunately, although I like them both, Erin and Antonio do not have much chemistry with this script. I'd like to see them in a Hallmark romcom together and I'm sure it would be better. Maybe it can be a Wedding March flick so the villain (Duke in the Wedding March series) can be there too lol. I realize this movie is from 2018, but skip it. A better movie than this, which ironically has the dead best friend as the detective, is My Husband's Killer Girlfriend. At least that mother worked w/her ex to find their daughter without any innocents biting it.