Lifetime Review: 'Deceived by My Mother-In-Law'

If anyone deserves happiness and stability, it's Kristen Walker (Allison McAtee). After being driven to a mental breakdown by a deranged stalker, this divorce attorney is working to put her trauma behind her. Helping in her journey towards recovery is Kristen's doting daughter Mara (Katie Kelly) and her new husband James (Rib Hillis). Handsome and caring, Kristen and James fell in love and married in a whirlwind. Now that she and James are in wedded bliss, Kristen has another hurdle to overcome: Maggie (Dey Young), James's diabetes-stricken mother who has come to move in with her son and daughter-in-law.

As soon as she arrives, Kristen gets the distinct impression that Maggie doesn't like her. A passive-aggressive woman with a smart remark for everything, Maggie seems like the typical disapproving mother-in-law. James assures Kristen that his mother has a good heart and that she just needs to give her time to show it. But on top of her struggles to get along with Maggie, Kristen begins to fear she's attracted another stalker. Driven back to the brink of madness, Kristen has no idea Maggie is responsible--or that nothing about her marriage to James is as it seems.

While released months apart from each other, Deceived by My Mother-in-Law has a few things in common with fellow David DeCoteau-directed Lifetime movie The Wrong Mr. Right. Both center around a woman in a whirlwind romance with a man played by Rib Hillis who turns out to have nefarious ulterior motives. But when it comes to quality, the similarities stop for the most part. While this movie isn't perfect, it leaves The Wrong Mr. Right in the dust with its likable protagonists, entertaining villains, and all-around better viewing experience. Admittedly, the film's first few steps are shaky thanks to the opening scene. Kristen's reaction to thinking someone has broken into her house is more than a little bizarre. She thinks someone broke in, but she stays downstairs as she starts screaming for help? Allison McAtee's acting feels strangely forced during this sequence, and while later revelations about Kristen's past make her reaction a little more understandable, there's still a lot there that makes no sense.

In other low points, Deceived by My Mother-in-Law is plagued by bouts of bad dialogue. Lots of stiff-sounding and overly expository lines abound, with one memorably painful stretch being when Mara awkwardly recaps her mother's stalking experience to her boyfriend. Katie Kelly gets hit with a lot of lines like this, as do most of her co-stars. Some get hit less than others, but everyone in the cast feels the sting. Despite the wonky script, they all give performances that vary from solid to excellent. At the top, we have Allison McAtee. She proved herself more than capable of emotional range with last year's Deadly Mile High Club, and Deceived by My Mother-in-Law shows that McAtee can also show that kind of range as a heroic character. Kristen Walker is an easy character to root for, with the way McAtee draws you into Kristen's rollercoaster emotions being the icing on the cake. Whether she's squirming in discomfort over Maggie's patronizing comments or unraveling from the strain of her PTSD, you'll be feeling for Kristen as she's pushed to her limit by her conniving mother-in-law and husband.

Before you think I've spoiled anything, the movie doesn't make it much of a secret that James and Maggie are plotting against Kristen. A shot of James smirking as he hugs Kristen in an early scene is proof enough of his duplicity. Their motivation isn't new and some of their dialogue sounds like the musings of a cliché mustache-twirling cartoon villain. Still, Dey Young and Rib Hillis give good performances as a pair of deceptive con artists. Young will have you hissing as Maggie starts the film as a loud-mouthed bully before showing just how ruthless and cold she can get. Amusingly, Maggie's snarky attitude doesn't stop when her true colors are revealed, making her all the nastier as she works to destroy an innocent woman's life for her own gain. And in comparison to his performance as The Wrong Mr. Right's Paul, Rib Hillis is much stronger here. Whenever he's gaslighting Kristen or showering her with affection, Hillis makes you believe James is capable of such manipulations.

WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW

It helps that, unlike Paul, James is written with a surprise dash of depth. James is certainly cruel in his willingness to deceive Kristen and Mara and help psychologically torture the former for the sake of getting her money. But it seems the man isn't too keen when it comes to murder. He rebukes Maggie's suggestion that they kill Kristen and Mara when their plan starts to come undone, he expresses discomfort over the two times he's forced to kill to keep a lid on his crimes, and his last act of the movie is to literally take a bullet for Kristen. I also think it's noteworthy that prior to the big climax, James gets Mara's boyfriend Michael out of the way by chloroforming him rather than killing him or knocking him out physically (i.e. the more violent way of subduing someone). Seems like he might've been telling the truth when he said he liked the kid. Hillis works well with the mild sense of morality that distinguishes James from the truly heartless "Maggie."

(Another nice emotional beat from Deceived by My Mother-in-Law: Denise and Ross's relationship. Despite Ross having cheated on Denise in the past, their current relationship is a civil one, with Ross even being implied to still have some feelings for Denise. Ross's death and Denise's subsequent guilt hit a lot harder as a result.)

Spoilers Over

The supporting cast is full of recognizable faces if you're familiar with David DeCoteau's Lifetime movies. Jackée Harry makes the best impact as Kristen's therapist Denise Lewis. As opposed to the overly accusatory principal Harry played in The Wrong Cheer Captain, Dr. Lewis is a wholly level-headed ally. She has a hard time believing Kristen when she suspects she's being stalked again, but she never lets her skepticism stop her from supporting her patient and assuring her that she's there to help her. Harry is even better during Denise's sassier moments, with most of them being whenever she's interacting with her ex-husband Ross. Harry shares good chemistry with Michael Paré, whose portrayal of Ross will have you liking the guy despite his philandering past. He did Denise wrong and initially seems set to continue being a pain in her neck. But as the film goes on and Denise asks for Ross's help investigating Maggie and James, the script and Paré's performance let you see that Ross isn't all that bad and might even still be in love with Denise. We also get a few solid cameos from Jonathan Stoddard, Jasmine Aivaliotis, and Jeremy Sry (the last of whom played Mara's lovable boyfriend Michael).

The last cast member to discuss is Katie Kelly, who isn't a DeCoteau regular, but was last seen on my blog when I was covering Lifetime's 2020 film Murder in the Vineyard. While she's given a lot of clunky lines to work with, Kelly is still charming and likable as Kristen's ever-supportive daughter. Empathetic to her mother's mental health struggles and willing to stand up for her with Maggie and James, Kelly is at her best when Mara begins to suspect something is amiss and firmly calls out Maggie and James for how they've been treating Kristen. This occurs around the time in the movie when all the cards are on the table. Deceived by My Mother-in-Law was already well-paced and interest-keeping before this point. But after everything becomes clear, the tension rises as complications arise and we wait to see it all erupt in the climax. It's not exactly an explosive finale, but it gets the job done with some flair and sets the stage for the sequel.

If you can weather out the stretches of poor dialogue, Deceived by My Mother-in-Law is an enjoyable slice of Lifetimey mayhem. The story starts out slow but steady before cranking up the tension once the viewer is let in on Maggie and James's secrets. The characters are investing for one reason or another and are played by actors that know how to keep them that way. Some characters even come with unexpected specks of nuance. So if you're in the mood for another fun Lifetime thriller with casually callous villains, give this movie a try. Just don't invite your own in-laws to watch with you if you have any, lest they get the wrong idea...

Score: 7 out of 10 halfway houses for crazies.