Lifetime Review: 'Friendship Never Dies'

Even before her father died, Evelyn Hayden (Leah Merritt) has been a shy girl who struggled to make friends. So initially, her mother Lucy (Lauren Buglioli) is happy about Evelyn's close friendship with classmate Brianna McMillen (Harlan Drum). But over time, Lucy has become concerned that the girls' friendship has become too co-dependent on Evelyn's side.

But when Brianna's mother is suddenly murdered and she's left with no place to stay, Lucy decides to let Brianna stay with her and Evelyn until other arrangements can be made. While the move-in is welcome news to the teenage besties, the days that follow leave Lucy feeling suspicious about Brianna. In addition to some odd behavior on Brianna's part, a few other revelations make Lucy think Evelyn's friendship with Brianna is more unhealthy than she thought--and that Brianna may have even had a hand in her mother's death. Can Lucy uncover the truth before it's too late to save her daughter?

Who knew that a Lifetime film with such an over-the-top opening could be so dull? As Friendship Never Dies opens, we're treated to a scene of Lucy and Evelyn pulling up to school, which is oddly scored to a pop song all about partying. It's a song that would feel more at place in a Lifetime movie that opens in a nightclub or at a wild teen rager. We also later get a standard "slow-mo character introduction" set to another pop-punk beat, making for a doubly extravagant film opener. Sadly, this isn't indicative of the film that follows it. Unless similar Lifetime movies about a mother finding out her teenage daughter's best friend is a psycho, Friendship Never Dies barely scratches the surface of its drama-rife plot. The story instead jumps through its hoops with no flair or passion, devoid of the dramatic spark that makes the best Lifetime movies fun.

The film isn't helped by how the script insists on needlessly stretching everything out. While it doesn't take too long for Lucy to start suspecting Brianna of having a dark side, it takes forever for any action to come of it. Apart from a few minor shots of adrenaline, the first half of Friendship Never Dies has little to no suspense or thrills. In fact, I'd say it's not until the finale that things really pick up. Until then, we just follow Lucy as she forms her suspicions of Brianna and slowly (and I mean slowly) begins to uncover evidence against her. It says something that the most tension we see before the big conclusion is a ridiculously artificial "suspense" sequence revolving around cutting up an apple. The Evil Down the Street had potatoes, Friendship Never Dies has apples. Mercifully, though, this movie doesn't sink nearly far enough to join the ranks of that stinker.

But when the finale's surprise revelation kicks in, the story and the acting improve a good deal. SPOILER ALERT When it becomes clear that Evelyn was the true "psycho friend" of the movie, it's a genuinely surprising and fun revelation to watch unfold. Evelyn's villainous breakdown is entertaining and makes good use of her affinity for classic Hollywood (a unique aesthetic used for Evelyn and Brianna throughout the movie) and Leah Merritt's performance sells Evelyn's obsession with Brianna and crazed desperation to "protect" their friendship. Harlan Drum and Lauren Buglioli also give emotional performances, with Buglioli really selling Lucy's heartbreak at learning she was completely unaware of her daughter's instability and thus couldn't help her before it was too late. While the ending felt a tad too sympathetic towards Evelyn for my taste given her actions, seeing Lucy affirm her unconditional love for Evelyn was made a heartwarming scene thanks to Buglioli and Merritt. And with a final shot seemingly suggesting Lucy's suspicions about Brianna may've been warranted after all, Friendship Never Dies ends on a hearty dose of sequel-baity ambiguity.

(One downside about the Evelyn twist: it makes some of Brianna's actions make no sense. Most of her "suspicious" behaviors are easy to accept as the behavior of a traumatized teenage girl. But others--most notably her near-psychotic apple slicing display--will leave you stumped in hindsight) Spoilers Over

But before this third-act plot twist loosens them up, Friendship Never Dies' script and cast are as stiff as can be. The main cast trio consistently looks and sounds like they're just going through the motions, with the script's often rigid dialogue not doing them any favors. Buglioli gets hit the worst by this, and isn't helped by how much of a bland "Lifetime Movie Mom" archetype Lucy is. Without a more energized performer, Lucy is a very uninteresting protagonist to follow for two hours. Ruan Martins is similarly stiff as Detective Bruce Kent, but at least his character makes up for it by being a moderately competent cop.

Jadon Cal (another actor making their Lifetime debut) is a notable bright spot of the supporting cast. In Cal's hands, Brianna's boyfriend Alex Tyler is an empathetic and adorably awkward guy, making you believe in his feelings for Brianna and keeping him from becoming a generic Satellite Love Interest. SPOILER ALERT Cal's sweet performance and Alex's awkward declaration of love for Brianna make his sudden murder all the more heartbreaking. There's also a bit of Harsher-in-Hindsight heartache in the implication that, if Brianna is truly innocent, then everything she said about her mother's ex Greg Olsen (played by Michael Hastings) was true. As such, his efforts to convince her mother and Lucy that Brianna was lying about him sexually harassing her are icky to look back on in the end. Spoilers Over

The last 15-20 minutes of Friendship Never Dies makes for some entertaining Lifetimey action, with the main cast coming alive in time to sell it. But it can only do so much to compensate for the other hundred-so minutes spent on a boring story with lifeless performances to match. While it doesn't get as dull/annoying as movies like The Wrong Real Estate Agent or Betrayed by My Husband, you'll still struggle to get invested when the story takes so long to get anywhere. The surprise twist saves what it can, but ultimately, a lot of this film's potential does die under the heavy weight of a bloated script.

Score: 4 out of 10 Marilyn Monroe quotes.