Lifetime Review: 'Fatal Getaway'

Fresh out of an abusive relationship, Eliza (Christie Burson) decides to join her friends to unwind over a beach vacation. Their rental is a high-tech dream house, and their host James (Tilky Jones) is handsome, as well as doting and charming—earning the romantic attention of Eliza's friend Bridgette (Karlee Eldridge). Still struggling to move on from her ex, Eliza's friends hope the vacation will give her the chance to move forward.

But no sooner have the girls settled into their new vacation spot, does Eliza realize that things aren't as peaceful as they appear. In addition to some frightening glitches in regards to James' high-tech home, his neighbor Hector (Fedor Steer) seems to be following her and her friends everywhere they go. When Eliza finds a necklace belonging to a girl who went missing in the area, as well as how a string of disappearances have been occurring, Eliza begins to fear that she and her friends are in danger. With her concerns falling on deaf ears, Eliza begins to work to find the truth—and uncovers a dark secret that may spell a permanent end to her fun in the sun.

Fatal Getaway had the stage set for it to potentially be an entertaining little drama. With a beautiful beach side setting, and a strong cast, all it needed was a strong story backing it up to sell itself to viewers like hot cakes. But unfortunately, writing and character is where Fatal Getaway crumbles apart, leaving in its wake an underwhelming film where truly strong moments are few and far between, and where strong performances go to waste on pacing too slow and uneventful to give them anything to work with.

Fatal Getaway features a "Vacation Gone Wrong" storyline that has been shown frequently on Lifetime, with one being the subject of a particularly sour review of mine. Despite that, the plot carries with it some ideas that could make for a shot of uniqueness, and the idea of a group of friends in an unfamiliar place at risk of an unknown danger is riff with dramatic possibilities. Unfortunately, the unique ideas that are present in Fatal Getaway (James' high-tech home, the beach side location) are hardly used to their full advantage, which, in combination with the stale and uneven script, leave the movie painfully formulaic for much of its runtime.

The haphazard script is all the more disappointing by the fact that Fatal Getaway has a solid cast under its belt. In addition to Christie Burson and Tilky Jones, two Lifetime regulars who have previously demonstratedtheir talents to the audiences of Lifetime, Fedor Steer brings some enigmatic appeal to suspicious neighbor, Hector. While seasoned Lifetime viewers (or those who had seen Lifetime's promos for Fatal Getaway) will be able to tell right away that James is up to no good, Steer manages to play Hector's scenes with an ambiguous note, leaving it up in the air if he's hiding something as well.

Sadly, Steer's performance is the only one not severely damaged by the poor writing. Christie Burson does her best to play Eliza as a sympathetic character, but despite Burson's best efforts, and the script's shoehorned backstory for Eliza that is painfully explained to the viewer in the film's opening, the script leads Eliza (and by extension her friends, who are never allowed to emerge as anything other than background characters) to become an unsympathetically moronic character. The plot not only has Eliza's level of suspicions against James alternate depending on what the script needs her to do, but even when she does suspect James of misdeeds, she remains at the house due to her thinly written friends being taken by James' charm. This leaves Eliza and her friends hard to sympathize with, and the bland script also results in Tilky Jones (who excelled as the villain of He's Watching) being left stranded with a relentlessly generic "Charming Psychopath" role that gives him little to make his own.

A redeeming spark comes in the form of the film's climax, which instantly cranks up the tension, and contains the always effective "cat-and-mouse in the psycho's house" scene, which all culminates in an epic moment for Eliza that partially makes up for her inept behavior leading up to it. But aside from this well-handled climax, Fatal Getaway is mostly a misfire for Lifetime, with the script failing to differentiate itself in any substantial way, or give its more than capable leads anything to sink their teeth into. Had it been written better, Fatal Getaway could've been an enjoyable little thriller, but as is, the dry-as-a-bone script, and poorly written characters leave this as one getaway, I'd say, that is ultimately not worth the gas money.

Score: 3 out of 10 crystal necklaces.