Lifetime Review: 'All My Husband's Wives'

Marriage counselor Alison Whitford (Erin Karpluk) never imagined her marriage could have problems. She and her husband Dominic (Trevor Hayes) have been together for about a year, and yet, Alison couldn't imagine their relationship being anything less than bliss. But after being rocked by Dominic's sudden demise in a hit-and-run accident, Alison gets a rude awakening: her husband was not only cheating on her, but had two other wives behind her back.

The wives in question are waitress Marla Mitchell (Kate Corbett) and Dominic's first wife Cheryl Volberg (Kelly Rutherford). After the women become aware of each other for the first time, they all deal with their own feelings of anger and betrayal while Detective Gabriel Strickland (Joris Jarsky) uncovers more evidence to Dominic's secret life and potential ties to criminal activity. Meanwhile, Alison and Marla find themselves embroiled in a feud with Cheryl over the money Dominic left behind, pitting the three widows against each other. With the investigation ongoing and the rivalry between the trio of wives intensifying, what other shocking secrets will emerge?

Much like Incendo's 2018 offering Separated at Birth, All My Husband's Wives (originally titled Rule of 3) is a film that centers around three women being brought together by unconventional means and the drama that ensues between them. The film also replicates Separated at Birth's problematic pacing, as the drama is developed in a deliberately slow manner that often leaves the movie as a dull waiting game. The film also makes the mistake of prioritizing the drama between Dominic's widows over his murder and the shady business he was involved in, leaving the plot-instigating mystery frustratingly underdeveloped. While the friction that boils between Alison and her husband's other wives is far from boring, the pacing frequently keeps the drama from getting as entertaining as it could be, leading to a frustratingly uneven and occasionally bland plot for a film with such a drama-infused concept.

Same as Separated at Birth, however, All My Husband's Wives has a talented cast that brings enough to the table where at least some of the pacing issues are offset by their performances. Each of the three main leads bring the right amount of suspicion to their characters, allowing them each to emerge as potential culprits without feeling like red herrings. Erin Karpluk, fresh off giving a spectacular performance in My Father, My Kidnapper, does well at making her character a likable and sympathetic everywoman, while Kate Corbett and Kelly Rutherford are obviously having a blast playing the neurotic Marla and the ice cold Cheryl. Marla is additionally notable for being the only character allowed to fully play into the film's over-the-top nature, with Corbett bringing a wonderfully histrionic performance as Marla as she sinks further and further into instability.

WARNING: MAJOR Spoilers Below

The film also boasts a surprise twist in the form of the last-second reveal of Dominic's killer, which came as a massive surprise to me as I was preparing for the the film to end on a chintzy heartwarming note that would leave the mystery behind Dominic's secret lives and murder completely abandoned. With the reveal that Alison was in fact responsible for killing Dominic, the viewer is left to look back on all of Alison's actions throughout the film and realize the true motivation behind many of her decisions. The film also allows Karpluk the chance to break away from the mostly one-note characterization Alison was saddled with for much of the film and wrap herself in the reveal, bringing a new life to Alison as she savors the fact that she's successfully manipulated everyone off her trail and is free to make off like a bandit with her treacherous hubby's wealth.

(Alison's villainous reveal can also be read as a subversion of Lifetime's oft-used and oft-loathed "Useless Cop" trope, as it means that Detective Strickland's initially-easy-to-dismiss belief that Alison was responsible for Dominic's murder was in fact correct all along)

Spoilers Over

While it's unfortunate that All My Husband's Wives couldn't rise to the same dramatic levels as its salacious title, the film has enough to make it a worthwhile watch. The uneven pace and abandonment of its central mystery in favor of a comparatively less interesting drama is sure to push some away, but with a strong trio of actresses headlining the film and a twist ending that will leave you floored, All My Husband's Wives has enough to make its taxing elements tolerable.

Score: 6 out of 10 Panamanian statues.