Lifetime Review: 'Evil Stepmom'

Twin sisters Gabriella and Annabelle Lasky (Julia Lalonde and Hannah Vandenbygaart) are driven soccer players hoping to get accepted into the same college. But in the midst of their senior year, one thing is bothering Annabelle: the fact that their father/coach Tim (Randy Thomas) has yet to get back into the dating scene since their mother's death. Not wanting her dad to be alone once she and Gabriella leave the nest, Annabelle goes about setting up a dating profile for Tim--much to the annoyance of her sister, who isn't as ready to see her father date again.

Not long after Annabelle creates the profile, Caroline Hargrave (Tara Spencer-Nairn) and her daughter Bethany (Emily Clarke) enter her family's lives. With Bethany joining the Lasky sisters on their soccer team, she and Annabelle become fast friends while Caroline quickly strikes up a relationship with Tim. While Annabelle couldn't be happier, Gabriella is wary. It doesn't take her long to start suspecting there's something amiss about Caroline and Bethany. Things go from bad to worse as Gabriella begins to see the mother and daughter for what they are: a pair of master manipulators. With her father and sister refusing to believe her, it's up to Gabriella to unmask Caroline and Bethany before their sinister agenda destroys her family.

Since I'm passing on Lifetime's recently premiered movie Killer Stepmom (the Cassandra Truth-engrained plot sounds too frustrating for my nerves to handle), I decided to check out this similarly titled Lifetime thriller instead. It only seemed logical, given the similar titles and how both come to us from MarVista Entertainment. But as luck would have it, this film also has that trope's fingerprints all over it. Even though Gabriella Lasky lacks the troublemaking history of Killer Stepmom's teenage heroine, that doesn't stop her father and sister from repeatedly dismissing her as she comes to realize her prospective stepmother and stepsister are up to no good. Even before this pattern of disbelief starts, Annabelle makes a terrible first impression. She's unbelievably blasé about her father's grief-fueled reluctance to start dating again, sets up a dating app profile for Tim without his permission or input, and ignores the blatant red flags Caroline and Bethany start waving around. Tim also brushes off all the warning signs, but while his unwillingness to listen to his daughter is aggravating, his disbelief never segues into cruel insults like Annabelle's does.

What makes Annabelle and Tim's behavior even more irritating is how much their attitudes flip-flop. Annabelle is the worse offender in this regard: one second, she's coming to realize Gabriella is right about the Hargraves, and the next, she's dismissing everything her sister says and lashing out at her. Tim also has a few moments where he starts to piece together that something isn't right about Caroline and her daughter, only to have his suspicions easily pacified by his girlfriend feeding him more transparent lies. At least in Tim's case, I can sort of understand why he acts this way. After all, he's a grieving man being emotionally manipulated by the first woman he's felt love for in a long time. Meanwhile, Annabelle just seems to be taken in by the fact that Bethany is outgoing, can get her into college parties, and has cute clothes she can borrow. So unlike Tim, Annabelle has almost zero redeeming qualities and Hannah Vandenbygaart's shaky acting does the character no favors.

Randy Thomas fares better as the marginally more likable Tim. He gives a sweet performance whenever Tim is being romanced by Caroline or opens up about how he's struggled with the loss of his wife. Still, he's not as adorkable or sympathetic as similar Lifetime dads and, despite his tragic backstory, it's infuriating to see Tim fall for Caroline's artificial charm. This is largely because of how, as played by Tara Spencer-Nairn, Caroline isn't all that convincing as a scheming femme fatale. As much as she complains about Bethany putting their plan at risk by being careless, Caroline tips her hand just as early as her cohort. When Caroline's free to let her crazy side show, Spencer-Nairn gives a pretty good performance. Her cold, methodical tone and if-looks-could-kill glare when Caroline makes veiled threats against Gabriella are on point. But when it comes to seduction and manipulation, Spencer-Nairn drops the ball. She makes Caroline's words of warmth, "woe is me" spiels, and efforts to guilt trip Tim too obviously superficial. As such, even for someone semi-established as a hopeless optimist, Tim looks like a moron for believing Caroline's façade.

Emily Clarke's Bethany isn't any more convincing a deceiver as her mother, but at least in her case, she spends more time messing with Gabriella than putting on a show of innocence. For a debut role, Clarke does decent work playing the more volatile half of this mother-daughter tag team. While Spencer-Nairn takes the subdued approach to letting Caroline's inner psychopath come out, Clarke goes the opposite direction and it makes for some delicious scenes. It's just too bad that SPOILER ALERT the reveal about Bethany's true relation to Caroline isn't used as well as it could've been. When Gabriella started taunting Bethany for letting her sister boss her around, it seemed like that was sowing the seeds for a Sister vs. Sister brawl. After all the scenes where Caroline berates Bethany for screwing up their plan, it would've made sense for the more unstable conwoman to finally snap. Instead, we get a standard climax that ends with Gabriella being shot, even though it would've been much more satisfying for Annabelle or Tim to take a bullet as karma for what they put their sister/daughter through. Spoilers Over

Among all these badly developed characters and underwhelming performances stands Julia Lalonde as Gabriella. Apart from some moments when she lashes out at very inopportune times, Gabriella is a consistently sympathetic lead and Lalonde does a fine job playing her. As Gabriella's fight to expose the truth leaves her estranged from her family, you'll want to hug the poor girl as she's continuously threatened and disregarded as a selfish liar. It helps that Gabriella also has custody of the only brain in the Lasky household. She objects to Annabelle setting up a dating profile for their father without his consent, quickly picks up on the bad vibes Caroline and Bethany give off, and does what she can to gather proof once her suspicions are confirmed. While Annabelle and Tim might grate at your nerves, Gabriella's sweet nature and determination to protect her dense father and bratty sister might just be enough to keep you watching.

To go along with the wasted story potential detailed in the above Spoiler section, there's a pair of side characters in Evil Stepmom whose minuscule roles could've been expanded on. Those characters are Tim's work friend Mike and an unnamed man who is suggested to be one of her previous victims. Either man could've become a substantial supporting player in this story in a number of ways. Mike could've become a much-needed ally for Gabriella and the nameless man could've shed light on Caroline and Bethany's past while serving as a more serious obstacle for them to take care of. As is, Mike gets two scenes for the whole movie while the unnamed man disappears after his and Caroline's all-too-brief confrontation. And with those two discarded potential plot points, Ish Morris and Douglas Kidd are robbed of the chance to make any real impression.

While the story moves at a swift enough pace that you won't get too bored, the inner mechanisms of said story are sure to grind your gears. The central character of Evil Stepmom may be a fierce young girl trying to save her family from danger, but she's also the only character who won't make you want to tear your hair out. Tim is impossibly dumb, Annabelle is a self-centered brat, and the titular stepmom and her daughter are villains whose status as "master manipulators" is an informed trait. Even with the steady pacing, the movie settles into a cycle of Gabriella trying to prove Caroline and Bethany are dangerous and the mother-daughter duo quashing her efforts. Gabriella's resolve might be enough for you to tough out the hour and 25 minutes, if for no other reason than to see her moment of vindication. Just be prepared to spend most of the movie wanting to kick a soccer ball into Annabelle's face or throttle Tim with his coach whistle.

Score: 4 out of 10 tournament fees.