Lifetime Review: 'Dangerous Snow Day'

All her life, Maggie Ford (Nicolette Langley) has wanted to work in social services. It's that desire to help children that led Maggie to become a live-in au pair for the Cargill family while she saves up for school. While she loves caring for the Cargill children, Maggie isn't so comfortable around their father Frederick (Matthew Pohlkamp). His leering glances and subtle come-ons have her crawling out of her skin whenever he's around. Things come to a head once Maggie gets accepted into her master's program. After she gives Frederick and his wife Kristen (Kate Watson) her notice that she'll be leaving them in the fall, Frederick tries to seduce Maggie so she'll stay--and angrily fires her when she rejects him.

While the encounter leaves Maggie upset and frazzled, it's only the beginning. In addition to Frederick interfering with her job hunt, Maggie begins to fear for her life after a series of attacks. Aided by Deputy Holden Hayes (Alex Trumble), Maggie tries to find evidence to expose Frederick for what he is and stop him from destroying her life. But there's something more dangerous than an incoming snowstorm lurking ahead for Maggie...

Don't get excited about the last line of the above synopsis. While the official synopsis for Dangerous Snow Day also makes a point of mentioning an upcoming storm, it never actually factors into the story. Instead, the movie is basically last year's The Nanny Murders, only set during the winter. While this newer movie has a less frustrating plot and smarter characters than its 2020 counterpart, it has the same problem when it comes to pacing. It's not long into the movie that Maggie is fired and blacklisted, with the rest of the film following Maggie as she deals with Frederick sabotaging her job search and the various attempts on her life. While the performances keep the story from getting boring, there are plenty of lulls in action that might have you nodding off on the couch. The fact that there's no explosive climax at the end of the bumpy road doesn't help. Still, if you were trying to choose between watching Dangerous Snow Day or watching The Nanny Murders, I'd give my recommendation to the film with the chillier setting.

To start, let's talk about Maggie Ford, who proves herself to be miles more appealing than The Nanny Murders' Jamie Kassman. In addition to not trying to use her situation for blackmail material, Maggie is much quicker and smarter in how she combats Frederick's unwanted advances and subsequent efforts to ruin her life. Established as having worked for the Cargills for a year, Maggie opens the film already aware of her boss's inappropriate behavior. Nicolette Langley gives an all-around great performance as Maggie Ford. She's sympathetic when she's dealing with the slimy Frederick, lovable whenever she's with the Cargill children Kaeden and Kohen (played by Harlow Wincentsen and Cruz Rosstedt), and fierce whenever she's standing up for herself. While she doesn't have many scenes with the kids, Langley works well with their actors and the Cargill kids are just as non-annoyingly adorable as Madison and Gwenny Page from The Nanny Murders.

Of all her co-stars, though, Langley works the best with Matthew Pohlkamp. The two balance each other out as a headstrong woman and the ruthless man out to destroy her. Pohlkamp plays Frederick Cargill as a realistically despicable monster, throwing himself into the businessman's entitled arrogance--the ugly quality that led him to believe he was above the law and resent Maggie for daring to tell him "no." Towards the end of the movie, though, Pohlkamp's performance wavers a bit when Frederick's understated malevolence is capped off with a cliché "Evil Rich Guy" tirade. While I usually like myself a histrionic Lifetime villain, it seems Pohlkamp is at his villainous best when he keeps it dialed back. In a clever detail, Frederick's stern attitude towards his son's habit of sharing a bed with his sister hints at the toxically controlling attitude he exerts over both Maggie and (as we see later) his wife.

As the film shows, it seems that poor Maggie is a magnet for predatory men. And while he's presented as the only good-hearted man in Maggie's life, Holden Hayes' behavior with Maggie feels pretty unprofessional of a detective. He's an angel compared to Frederick and Alex Trumble gives a nice performance as the somewhat awkward deputy. But with how inappropriately flirty he gets with Maggie and how he's a bit on the dense side when it comes to the investigation, it's hard to get behind Holden and Maggie's romantic subplot. Flawed-but-still-better-than-Holden supporting characters include Maggie's best friend Hannah and kindly waitress Ruth. Emary Simon gives a likable enough performance as the requisite Heroine's Supportive Bestie and Meredith Thomas uses her limited screentime to make Ruth as sweet as apple pie. Unfortunately, Ruth drops out of the plot after becoming the latest potential boss to believe Frederick's lies while SPOILER ALERT Hannah nearly gets killed after doing a spectacularly bad job tailing Frederick. Not that her and Maggie's plan to have Hannah follow a man they suspect of attempted murder was good to begin with... Spoilers Over

WARNING: Bigger Spoilers Below

Last, but certainly not least, we have Kate Watson as Kristen Cargill. For most of the movie, Watson is believable as an innocent wife and mother. With her soft-spoken nature and warnings to Maggie to be careful about Frederick, you'll believe that Kristen is as much a victim of her husband as her former au pair is. And whereas The Nanny Murders' Jamie callously shamed her harasser's long-suffering wife, Maggie sympathizes with Kristen, initially seeing her as another victim of Frederick's cruelty.

But then the final act starts, and Kristen's dark side comes out. While Frederick is a pervert with a violent streak, Kristen is revealed to be the true unstable murderer of the relationship. Psychotically jealous and delusional, Kristen is willing to kill to preserve her hopelessly broken marriage. Watson takes after Pohlkamp when it comes to playing Kristen's insanity with soft-spoken malice, making good use of the all-too-short and anti-climactic finale. The best part of it is watching Kristen call out Frederick for the pathetic philanderer he is. It's a shame Kristen doesn't get more time to thoroughly blast Frederick (whose abuse and infidelities no doubt contributed to her breakdown) and that Watson doesn't get more of a chance to revel in her character's madness.

Spoilers Over

In aesthetic blunders, some of the CGI snow effects are noticeably cheap and the audio becomes crackly during one scene at the diner. Other than that, Dangerous Snow Day has a lot to compensate for where it slips up. The primary players of the film (Langley, Pohlkamp, and Watson) are all generally at their best, the supporting cast surrounding them do what they can with underdeveloped characters, and the main protagonist will have you rooting to see her come out on top. If you need a solid Lifetime movie to enjoy when the weather outside gets frightful, Dangerous Snow Day might just fit the bill for you.

Score: 6.5 out of 10 Jenga towers.