Lifetime Review: 'Deadly Lessons'

As someone in the midst of college, I can speak from firsthand experience that it can get hairy. There's homework, student labor, and final exams that make you want to pull your hair out. It can be a lot to deal with, so for a college student in the Lifetimeverse, you know it has to be doubly hard. One can only imagine how hard it must be to focus on a paper due next week when you've got a homicidal stalker or psychopathic roommate to deal with.

Such is a similar case for Lisa Jones (Christie Ann Burson), a college student who has a pretty big secret: She's in a secret relationship with her ethics professor, Michael Harris (Ryan Scott Greene), with their after class "meetings" being havens for passion trysts. Ultimately, though, their affair is uncovered by Lisa's friends and the two are reported to the Dean. When Lisa learns Michael will be forced to leave his job, she also decides to drop out of college, much to the dismay of her friends and mother.

Despite the mass disapproval, Lisa and Michael get a quickie marriage at the town hall and settle down at a remote forest cabin to start their new lives together. But soon after that, Lisa begins to realize Michael isn't as charming and compassionate as he originally was. He's dismissive of their new neighbors, gets angry with Lisa for trying to socialize with anyone but him, and even breaks her phone in a moment of rage. As Lisa begins to learn the dark secrets of her new husband, mostly via Detective James (Christina Cox), she must fight back to save herself from a man she once loved....

Many who read this synopsis might be tempted to dub Lisa the most idiotic woman to ever grace Lifetime's screen. Two things: first, there's definitely steeper competition for that title in Lifetime's immense library, and two, those people would have a pretty valid case. Lisa, a college senior just a few semesters away from graduating, basically abandons her promising academic career for a man she barely knows. This is coupled with the implication that their romance is still fresh, as the beginning of the film shows Lisa's friends only just beginning to get suspicious about Michael keeping Lisa after class so often.

But despite this error in judgement, Lisa is quick to realize her mistake once Michael begins showing outward signs of his true nature. There's no moment when Michael's possessive, controlling, and abusive behavior towards Lisa goes unnoticed by the young heroine. But unfortunately, by that point, it's too late for Lisa to go back on what she's done and thus the film kicks into gear with Lisa fighting to learn the truth about Michael and escape his clutches. The climax, as a result, is a thrilling and satisfying one, and you will be tempted to shout, "You go, girl!" at some point.

The supporting cast also fares very well, with Ryan Scott Greene giving a powerful and painfully realistic depiction of the outwardly charismatic and inwardly abusive and possessive Michael. Christina Cox, despite having an ultimately minor role in the movie, leaps off the screen as the tough-as-nails, down-to-business detective who, despite her less than personable initial interactions with Lisa, truly does care for her well-being and wants her to see Michael for what he really is.

In a nice moment of depth for Lifetime, there's also the fairly minor character of Patrick, played by Jason Dean (no, not the one played by Christian Slater in 1988). He's Lisa's friend from college who helps expose her relationship with Michael, and after the two of them move in together, Patrick proceeds to spy on them from the forest, earning him the nickname "Tree Boy" from Lifetime's Twitter community. Alone, this may come off as an unneeded side plot, as it has no overarching affect on the story, but in hindsight, it provides a startling parallel. Patrick is against Lisa's relationship and marriage to Michael, even before his true form emerges, and goes through the trouble of stalking her all the way out to her new home, with a motivation for such never being defined. It's shocking and subtly tragic that two of the most important men in Lisa's college life turned out to be an abuser and a judgmental, hypocritical stalker.

Overall, while Deadly Lessons has its problems, it's a very well-acted and well-paced film that never ceases to keep the viewer interested. Among "Tainted Love" movies for Lifetime, this is one that I can proudly call a favorite and give a glowing seal of approval.

Score: 9.5 out of 10 bent cell phones.