The Other Mother

The wacko of the week is a pretty blonde second wife. She is nice to her stepdaughter while trying to befriend the first wife. All the time causing rifts in the family. The 2 lead actresses are good. Annie Wersching plays the first wife. And Kimberley Crossman plays the second wife. Things build up gradually and plausibly and the stuff the wacko does are quite subtle at first. The requisite supporting characters get killed and there is a fairly satisfying conclusion as far as these types of Lifetime thriller movies go. Worth one watch.

These movies and this one is well-done seem to fall into place. Someone enters the life of a family and creates havoc and a good friend discovers what is going on and forfeits her life as a result. The Other Mother is another picture like this. A divorced man suddenly remarries while with his daughter in France and the three come home and the new wife is most manipulative in attempting to destroy the relationship between her step-daughter and her mother. She comes up with all sorts of evil- getting rid of a long time house maid by placing items in her bag so as to make it appear that she has been stealing. Getting the girl's mother drunk so as to show she is unfit. The list goes on and on. Of course, this evil young woman has quite a sordid past but murder and utter mayhem have to take place before it is all sorted out. Another common denominator of these pictures is that the culprit often escapes and will try to play havoc again. Nevertheless, a very exiting thriller.

A couple of times in "The Other Mother," the expression "Let's vamonos!" is used to describe a quick getaway by motor vehicle. That metaphor is the perfect encapsulation of the character of Tiffany, the woman on the move with a million aliases, who aspires to have the perfect family. In a whirlwind romance, Tiffany marries Mitch McClain in Paris, and by the time they return to the states, Tiffany has become the darling of her daughter-in-law, Brooke. Mitch's ex-wife, Jackie, is surprised to learn of Mitch's new wife, and she senses immediately that Tiffany is attempting to drive a wedge between her and her daughter. The action escalates to the point where Brooke is almost completely estranged from Jackie. At that precise moment, Tiffany's diabolical plan begins to implode. Brook's best friend Taylor suspects that something is off with Tiffany and discovers multiple identification cards, going all the way to Czechoslovakia. Taylor becomes one of Tiffany's numerous victims, conked over the head and thrown into Jackie's swimming pool. The inherent power of love of a mother for her daughter leads Jackie to conduct an investigation of her own. The trail of evidence that she discovers leads Jackie to fear for the life of her daughter. The action at the end is fast-paced as Tiffany races to Mitch's house to attempt to save Brook from the clutches of the "other mother." By then, it is high time for Tiffany to be thinking of the fateful words, "Let's vamonos!"

How many headshots could the villain take and still somehow escape? A thoroughly despicable villain in this one, with superhuman strength to boot. Some of the villain's manipulations were quite subtle and believable, but when they become all seeing and all knowing, that's when the movie loses me. And being able to manhandle every victim with tight shorts and high wedge heels is so ridiculous to the point of laughter. How did she not even sprain an ankle in the climax? This movie is four years old, so spoiler....... I hate when villains like this get away to terrorize more.