A Date with Deception

A Date with Deception_720p(480P)

Moviecut—A Date with Deception

It dragged on too long and the story only barely seemed plausible. What even was this plot? A divorce and she goes down for fraudulent billing? And he's a murderer on top of it? Way too much happening in this one. There are too many details if you ask me and the flashbacks don't really help. It seems like when Lifetime doesn't want a movie to be your basic revenge/obsession/psycho thriller, they add some business aspect and it doesn't work that often. Mainly bc they don't flesh that part out. Not to mention, does it really make sense that he would kill the first wife (or girlfriend?) but get this one sent to prison? I also like how, at the end, everyone else is horribly and visibly injured including Elias, but what's her face never even has so much as a band aid on her. Really gets old watching the lead characters' friends catch the brunt of everything. Her friend could have bled out for what? Jeffrey could have had a head injury for what? For her? How about some shared danger? Additionally the "man bad" tone of this movie was super obvious and cringe. There's an episode of Walker Texas Ranger where a support group of women help a battered friend take down her abusive husband and it was far more inspiring than this. Since he's had two villainous turns in about a month, I have to say that Rib's movie with the two sisters was better than this.

Leena Pendharker directs A Date with Deception and wants you to really know how thought out her movie is. With enough flashbacks to make The Usual Suspects look like Romper Room by comparison, "Deception" fashions these flashbacks in regular and quick cuts and almost makes them appear like filler. I mean you could have just settled down and shot the whole darn thing from the beginning. And that's the problem. A Date with Deception is about a woman who goes to prison for a crime she didn't commit with said woman trying to get revenge on her ex-husband who put her there. What no first act, no false arrest, and no trial? What no anguish of going to the slammer and getting harassed by fellow inmates while ex-hubby chills in swank abode? What no judge denying parole and throwing down that almighty gavel? Yup, A Date with Deception bypasses the agog. It basically starts with a flash-forward three years later and then time travels back like all get-out (revert to first paragraph). Hey, I'm not saying director Pendharker doesn't know where to put the camera and can't set up a scene. It's just that her film presents a severe lack of suspense. No one really appears like they're ever in danger, the stock characters make weird decisions, and the set locations are rather nebulous. Same office space, same parking garage, same luxurious digs, different natural setting. What? Really? "Deception" stars Kia Dorsey, Hannah Jane McMurray, and Rib Hillis. The acting overall is pretty middle-of-the-road with only Hillis (as antagonist Elias) providing any kind of trashy spark. Rib Hillis, well no one plays a Lifetime flick slimeball quite like the Rib-meister. It's in the sneer, the debonair wardrobe, the way he hams it up like all Easter Sunday, and the way he harshly maneuvers the ladies. When he's off-screen, A Date with Deception is nothing more than a stylish "wheeze".

Just like its name suggests it was a real deception. A complete waste of 1h23 minutes........ The plot was so 'lame' and anyone could guess the end before it even gets to the peak of the story. The acting was so flat and boring! The love story could have been depicted better by 5th-grade students who just started their acting journeys!! I was wishing to find a story that is somehow interesting and that would make me hooked till the last minute but surprisingly it was as lame as a kids story with no imagination, no new plot nor even a storyline that can get you confused It was a waste of time and I don't recommend it at all!!

It dragged on too long and the story only barely seemed plausible. What even was this plot? A divorce and she goes down for fraudulent billing? And he's a murderer on top of it? Way too much happening in this one. There are too many details if you ask me and the flashbacks don't really help. It seems like when Lifetime doesn't want a movie to be your basic revenge/obsession/psycho thriller, they add some business aspect and it doesn't work that often. Mainly bc they don't flesh that part out. Not to mention, does it really make sense that he would kill the first wife (or girlfriend?) but get this one sent to prison? I also like how, at the end, everyone else is horribly and visibly injured including Elias, but what's her face never even has so much as a band aid on her. Really gets old watching the lead characters' friends catch the brunt of everything. Her friend could have bled out for what? Jeffrey could have had a head injury for what? For her? How about some shared danger? Additionally the "man bad" tone of this movie was super obvious and cringe. There's an episode of Walker Texas Ranger where a support group of women help a battered friend take down her abusive husband and it was far more inspiring than this. Since he's had two villainous turns in about a month, I have to say that Rib's movie with the two sisters was better than this.

source: A Date with Deception

Let me just preface this review by saying that I love Lifetime movies, even when they are "bad". Sometimes its fun to watch a mini soap opera for a couple of hours. That being said, I have found that the 2023 originals have been very disappointing so far. This particular movie had a very confusing narrative - switching back and forth between recent- past and present - that made it hard to follow the actual story line. In addition, I found the acting to be really flat. The " love interest" story line seemed like it was thrown in as an afterthought as it made absolutely no sense and there was zero chemistry between the two actors.