Lifetime Review: 'Her Best Friend's Husband'

Ever since childhood, Jane Thornton (Cheryl Ladd) and Mandy Roberts (Bess Armstrong) have been the best of friends. So when Jane has the opportunity to visit Seattle to surprise Mandy for her birthday, she jumps at the chance. But soon after the party, a distraught Mandy confides with Jane about something weighing on her mind: she's fallen out of love with her husband Will (William R. Moses) and wants a divorce. Shocked and caring deeply for both Mandy and Will, Jane does everything in her power to try and save her friends' marriage.

But once it becomes clear things between Mandy and Will are over, another bombshell drops: Jane and Will begin to realize they have feelings for each other! Shocked, Jane tries to deny how she feels, but she'll eventually have to face up to her budding attraction to Will. But will her second chance at love come at the cost of her dearest friend?

Stepping back in time to revisit an old chestnut from Lifetime's catalog, Her Best Friend's Husband definitely speaks of a different side of the channel. If the film were a more typical Lifetime movie, the story would be about Will turning out to be a sociopathic monster or Mandy a psychotically jealous nutcase. But instead, Her Best Friend's Husband is more on par with a low-stakes episode of General Hospital than with modern mayhem-brimmed Lifetime features. No one gets murdered and no one is systematically plotting to ruin anyone's life. Instead, Her Best Friend's Husband is an emotionally charged drama about a failed marriage leading to a difficult conflict between three friends.

The soap opera-esque tone won't be to everyone's liking, and neither will the slow-boiling pace. It takes about half the movie for Jane and Will to realize their attraction to each other, and it's not until about the last half hour when their budding romance is uncovered by Mandy and her and Will's daughter Kelly (played by Lindy Booth). As such, the conflict caused by Jane and Will's surprise romance feels like it doesn't get the time it needs to grow and reach a natural conclusion. Instead, it all feels rushed. It would've been better to have Mandy and Kelly learn about Jane and Will's feelings earlier, allowing more time to delve into the various complications raised by the relationship. Additionally, the film's pace before the late reveal and subsequent rushed third act is comparatively very drawn out. Both of these problems could've been avoided had the script been tweaked to make the plot run more smoothly, both before and after Jane and Will's secret is out.

Writing and acting are arenas where Her Best Friend's Husband works better, though there are noteworthy stumbles. Cheryl Ladd is consistently likable and sympathetic, selling the plethora of emotions that Jane goes through during her bizarre predicament. Bess Armstrong and Lindy Booth deliver the same emotions as Mandy and Kelly Roberts, and William R. Moses is fairly charming and sympathetic as Will. But for all of Moses' charm and chemistry with Ladd, there are also a few moments when Moses makes Will come across as creepy. One such moment is when Will comes to Jane's hotel room, where you wouldn't be faulted for thinking the movie was about to take a very dark turn.

But apart from these moments, Moses and Ladd give Will and Jane chemistry that makes their unexpected romance believable and something to root for. In notable supporting cast members, John Ralston and Jim Thorburn are naturally likable as Jane's brief love interest Elliott and Kelly's boyfriend Sam, while the late Meg Hogarth brings a supportive air to Mandy's mother Evelyn. It's a fitting portrayal, given how Evelyn is the only person to respond to the news about Jane and Will with a moderately level head.

WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW

The same can't be said for Mandy herself, and it's her character that stands out as the worst in terms of writing. While Kelly's outrage at Jane and Will's "affair" is kept subdued enough to be understandable, Mandy's flies right over the line into unforgivably cruel territory. Mandy was already a difficult character to sympathize with, given her lackluster explanation for why she fell out of love with Will and the fact that she apparently never confided in Will how she was feeling until she told him she wanted a divorce. But once she finds out about Jane and Will, some truly disgusting colors of Mandy's come to light. Let's count 'em up:

1. She still views Will as her husband, even though she was the one wanting a divorce and telling Jane about how miserable her marriage to Will had become.

2. She accuses Jane of intentionally setting out to steal Will from her--conveniently forgetting how much Jane tried to keep them together--and of having always been jealous of her and her life.

and 3. Most revoltingly, Mandy has the gall to throw Jane's late husband into the mix by saying he'd be ashamed of her, as well as claiming Jane had even "stolen" Kelly because she couldn't have children of her own.

Add in the slut-shaming she throws at both Jane and Will, and you have Mandy full-on exposing herself as a toxic person. It's definitely satisfying seeing Jane fight back against Mandy's ugly statements and give her a well-deserved slap. But in the end, the satisfaction doesn't stick since the movie ends with Jane being the one to initiate an apology. While Armstrong gives a heartfelt performance to match Ladd's, it comes as too little too late--and isn't helped by Mandy going out of her way to say she was only apologizing for some of the things she said. Given how just about everything she said in the confrontation was unfair and awful, that really calls into question Mandy's sincerity.

A more subdued persisting problem throughout the whole third act, however, is how little we get to see of Will's side. While their long-term friendship makes it understandable why the film would focus on how the revelation affects Jane and Mandy most, it would've been nice to see Will get a similar scene with Mandy that Jane had. Given that Mandy still feels entitled to call Will her husband after divorcing him and is angry at him for the crime of moving on, there was certainly no shortage of confrontation fuel. Thankfully, though, there's still a fair handful of scenes focusing on how Will takes his marriage ending; all of which are well-acted by Moses.

Lastly, there's the matter of how Her Best Friend's Husband ends. While I appreciate the movie not going for too much of a Hallmark-esque ending, I would've liked had it ended with at least some sort of fanfare. As if, one could be forgiven for thinking the ending got cut off by accident. But despite my feelings, I still appreciate the movie for not trying to tie up its messy story in a neat little bow.

Spoilers Over

For the most part, I can definitely that Her Best Friend's Husband leaves a lot of room for improvement. With such a compellingly dramatic premise, there's a lot that the right cast and crew could work with to bring such a story to life. But with a sluggish pace and uneven focus, it feels like only half of that story potential was realized. But with an overall natural cast that keeps the melodramatic story grounded and spins what they can out of an imperfect script, Her Best Friend's Husband has enough to make it worth a watch in your downtime. And if anyone at Lifetime is reading this, I seriously recommend this movie for a remake. I can really see a fresh pair of eyes doing wonders with this emotionally loaded, drama-rife concept.

Score: 5 out of 10 friendship photo albums.