User Reviews

There was some gripping suspense sustained for approximately three-quarters of "Her Fiancé's Double Life" (aka, "Falling for a Killer"). Then, in the homestretch, the film fell apart due to clumsy plotting and a series of implausible action scenes.

Darcy Young is a successful prosecuting attorney, who senses something suspicious in the man going by the name of Thomas Schure, who is engaged to be married to Darcy's younger sister Brea. Darcy has learned from an associate that Thomas is likely a killer with multiple aliases. In the film's prologue, we observe Thomas pushing one of his wives down an elevator shaft.

In a pivotal scene, Darcy made a nearly catastrophic blunder by accusing Thomas of murder in front of her entire family, thus handing him the knowledge that she knows his true identity. In the scenes that follow, it stretched credibility for Thomas to be firing gunshots that should have awakened the entire household. Then, the physical confrontations, which moved from room to room, were overtly choreographed and were not believable.

Finally, the sadistic nature of Thomas's monologue to Darcy after he shot her was too long and too unpleasant. There were some well-chosen settings, especially the exterior of the Young's mansion. But the family members, including a seasoned attorney in the father, were inexplicably naive in their failure to recognize the danger signs of a psychopath.

Why, Lifetime? Just Why? I don't understand why they consistently set up a strong, smart, accomplished female character and then have her do all the dumbest things that even a person of mediocre intelligence wouldn't do. Let me count the ways that the central character - a "Yale educated ADA" acts like a moron:

1) Announcing in front of the whole family that her sister's fiance is a murderer without a) any evidence; not even any pictures or background of the person(s) who's allegedly murdered two other random people; b) without using the considerable resources of a DA's office to investigate someone she suspects of a crime - which she can do without conflict if she hands it off to someone else, aka, her colleague who suspects him too.

2) After being shot by the killer and surviving, she runs to save her sister - knowing that he is over at her family's house to kill her sister because (of course) he informed her that's where he was going in a long monologue before shooting her. She doesn't try to contact the police on the way there because of course, why would an ADA with a dad who is a highly regarded attorney in town call the police who would have been at her house in seconds given who they are when she can just drive all the way over there herself and fight a psycho alone?

3) Even though her family's house seems to be full of guns, she runs up on the psycho - having the benefit of surprise because he thinks she's dead - with what looked like a paper towel holder to hit him over the head. Um - really??!! Couldn't even have grabbed a heavy iron skillet?

4) Remarkably, when that seems to actually stun him and he drops the gun he's threatening her sister with, she doesn't grab the gun, she tries to run out of the room with her sister. Oops - who would have thought that wouldn't work? Again, this is an ADA who's supposed to work all day long with law enforcement..... To be fair, the "I'll hit you over the head and stun you but not grab the lethal weapon you have while you are out/on the ground" is pretty de rigeur for Lifetime movies.

5) Then, after an interminable time of stupid, the two dimwitted sisters finally manage to inject the psycho with a vial of poison he has (I know, I know), but again when he falls to the ground, they don't grab his gun. They also don't grab the antidote to the poison he TOLD THEM he has which of course he then uses on himself. And, this woman was supposed to have gone to Yale Law School? Then, again - probably IRL would be top of the class at Yale.

5) The main sister character is shot in the arm and in the chest (although not fatally) and the psycho killer stomps on her wounded arm and kicks her in the ribs, but dad says at the end hey - it's ok - she can go to the hospital in the morning. I mean, what's a little shot through the arm with a wound that's also been stepped on repeatedly; not like it's going to get infected or anything. Just take an advil and see the doctor in the morning - or not - maybe just walk it off.

6) Then, the evil brother of the psycho appears at the end and, of course, works for her dad at his law firm now. Do NONE of these high-falutin lawyers know how to conduct background checks on anyone??

7) A small thing but the outfit she was wearing at the end of the movie was entirely inappropriate for a DA. NO female DA would wear a skirt that short and think they'd be taken seriously. Sorry, I know it's 2023, but it's true.

Sheesh - I recognize the directors of these movies often mail it in because their names don't really get recognized. But, you'd think some of the actors would raise their hand and be like - "Um; my family and friends are going to see me in this. Can you tweek this script just a tad so I don't come across as such an absolute moron?"

We all know what we're getting when we watch a Lifetime movie but this one set a new low bar.

I was hoping the killer would take out the dad within 60 secs of seeing him on screen. The man that plays the part of dad would have to be the worst actor EVER!!

And it just went down hill from there. The whole family is obnoxious and "Tommy" could have done us a favour and killed them all.

When you've got producers of a movie who are also the writer or director/actress you know you're in for some serious garbage, it's the only way it could get green lit.

Don't waste your time people!!!

HORRENDOUS!!!!

But I had to quit this movie. Not only was it slow-paced, but Darcy had a terrible attitude. She's the typical nose in the air, hates her family but visits them and sulks. She treats people poorly, judges them, but all of her decisions are right and justified. Not a fan of characters written this way and Lifetime does this a lot. The sister was a dingbat, but it was well acted bc I've seen the actress in other movies on LMN and Hallmark and she has some range. The scenes with the dad were so hammish and awkward. I got the Ivy League and safety school jokes, but that whole thing was too cringe. The whole family was weird lol.

I ended up skipping a lot AND reading a play-by-play recap...I can't believe this movie did nothing more creative than internal rage and insurance money???? How in the world would he have gotten insurance money for Lindsay's character's death? At HIS office late at night, and down an elevator shaft? That would have been too suspicious, absence of cameras or not. And IMO, Lindsay's character as a director was an obvious cameo, so they should have had maybe her family or the family of another wife involved or tracking him trying to prove he did something to them. This story was too contained in this family to be believed. It would have given the feeling that his lies were always trailing him.

Something I just thought of...it would have been more interesting if this movie was more like Hitchcock's Suspicion where Tom, I mean Thomas, was the Cary Grant character where you weren't quite sure if he was capable of murder. The opening scene and offing the waiter would have obviously blown that, but they could have gone for ambiguity in the wife's death and had the audience questioning what he was capable of. Lying about his name? Sure. Making up life details? Sure. But murder? It would have been more suspenseful to not be sure than to have his actions be so obvious and we're all just waiting for the climax where the movie turns into your basic Lifetime thriller with a bloviating villain. I agree with another contributor...the potential was there, but it fell way short.

And that ending...They are really entertaining a sequel, huh? With Darcy being as dim as her sister? Taking off a star in anticipation for a crappy part 2.

This was the typical lifetime plot device where the protagonist doesn't trust her sister or daughter's fiancé, does a background check on them, turns out they have a different last name, tries to warn sister about her concerns but doesn't believe her, then fiancé devises a plan to kill their spouse, and kill anyone who gets in the way of their plan. Hmmm where have I seen that before? Except in this one, there was no second accomplice like in the last movie I watched that followed this plot point.

And as soon as I heard the words "life insurance" I already knew where it was going.

At least the friend from the hunting trip who had recognized Thomas from a court case wasn't killed or so much as injured, because he definitely would've been seen as a threat in the eyes of Thomas but he just laughs it off, followed by the cliché lines of "you must have me confused with someone else" and "I just have one of those faces". He does make up a scenario in his head where he does kill the friend, but he doesn't actually go through with it. Yet he had the guts to kill the innocent butler from the dinner party just for calling him dude instead of sir. SMH

The attempted murder of the maid Christina, was unnecessary, especially considering that she was impaired and had hearing problems. But Thomas was unaware of that and poisons her with a syringe and is put into a coma as a result. Also, why did she have to be black?? She could've been any other race. Talk about pushing stereotypes.

Why couldn't Thomas just delete the texts that Darcy's coworker Amanda sent to her phone instead of getting water all over it. And it was so stupid of Darcy to leave her phone on while sleeping, where the guy that she had done a background check on could just easily sneak in the room and destroy it, which is exactly what he did. Jonathan Stoddard's character was so over the top but in a good way (not a bad over the top like in most LT movies I've seen).

The mom, dad and Brea were so stupid to not believe Darcy's claims about Thomas and the two previous marriages that he previously been in, thinking that she is just "being foolish". And some sister Brea is. Choosing someone she has only been with for a few months over her own sister. Ugh, that part infuriated me.

Regarding the part with the guy at the end being Thomas's brother. It does look like a set up for a possible sequel, but I don't really see that happening. Lifetime movies rarely have sequels anyways. The last LTM to do this was 'Deceived by my MIL' followed by 'Mommy's Deadly Con Artist' and that was in 2021, almost two years ago! They were both released a week within each other too!

One of the better films that Lindsay Hartley directed. The other being 'In Love with my Partner's Wife' which also had Jonathan Stoddard playing the villain.

Two final notes: the song that played at the end of the film is the same song that played at the beginning of the 'Bound by Blackmail' movie from last year.

The Lifetime Uncorked reviewer is incorrect about there only being two murders in the movie. There are actually three murders that Thomas commits, if you count the woman from his relationship before Marta, who he had drowned. And he confessed to it during his villainous monologue with Darcy after he shot her.

I quite enjoyed this one. Stoddard did an excellent job as the psycho unhinged killer. The rest of the cast were also good. The story-line was good.

So it is about an assistant DA (Darcey) who is going back to her family home for the weekend to meet her sister Brea's fiancé Thomas. From the first encounter, Darcey feels something is not right with Thomas.

She starts digging by asking her assistant to run a background check on him. Nothing comes up but digging deeper reveals that a Thomas with two different last names was married twice and both wives were killed in accidental deaths, and in both cases as the insurance money was paid he disappeared.

When Darcey tells the family about her suspicion they all get angry at her and she leaves and goes back home, where Thomas is sitting on a chair with a gun waiting for her. After she shoots her on her arm he confesses to her about the reasons why he is doing this, which I won't say because I had given far too many spoilers already.

Suffice to say I liked this Lifetime movie too. Lindsay Hartley who is also a Lifetime regular has turned out to be a good director and producer. I have noticed the movies she has directed the background music is pretty decent and this one did not disappoint me either.

One final note. I thought the ending was a bit of a let down, the happy ending turned into three dots in other words the guy who works for Darcey's dad turned out to be psycho Tommy's brother, and Darcey went all googly eye on him.

The movie should have ended with one year later a family in the garden chatting and laughing eating and drinking shot.