Lifetime Review: 'The Secrets She Keeps'

Two years after her father's death, 16-year-old Amara Caldwell (Emily Miceli) has moved back into the house he used as an art studio with her mother Diane (Zoe Cramond). Adjusting to a new school is tough for Amara, with the upcoming Homecoming dance reminding her that she's never had a boyfriend. Diane starting a new relationship with local restaurateur Paul (John William Wright) further rubs that fact in her face. So, egged on by one of her new classmates, Amara--under the pretense of being 18--joins a dating app.

To her amazement, Amara matches with Shane (Keller Fornes), a charismatic young man she met outside her mother's new art gallery. Believing it to be fate, Amara begins messaging Shane, and pretty soon, she's head over heels. Not even finding out that Shane is 23 as opposed to 19 is enough to change her mind--nor is Amara's age a deterrent for Shane. When Diane finds out about Amara's older boyfriend, she forbids her daughter from seeing him again, but Amara refuses to let her mother ruin her first relationship. Looking further into Shane's past, Diane makes some alarming discoveries--and realizes that her daughter is in more danger than she initially realized.

Wow. It's been a while since a Lifetime movie has warranted a score in the 1s, but The Secrets She Keeps definitely earns it. In its opening minutes, things look moderately promising. Watching a captive girl tentatively work herself out of her binds while trying not to alert her nearby abductor is a tense opening. Too bad it leads into a first act that swiftly kills that tension. The film takes forever to get anywhere, with the first act taking too long in establishing Diane and Amara in their new home. While there are hints here and there of a hidden threat stalking the Caldwells, they're never used to any effect. In fact, despite Diane being the victim of a blatant murder attempt in the first 15 minutes, she and Amara barely react to it at all. Diane just goes "Someone tried to kill me!" while Amara sees a suspicious hooded man leave the scene and both women go back about their lives as if it was no big deal. Even more bizarre is how Diane does take proper precautions after a comparatively less violent gallery attack.

The worst part of this stagnantly paced opening act is the whole Homecoming Committee subplot Amara gets involved in with Regina George knockoffs Becky and Heather. A few plot-relevant things do happen during this plotline, but mostly, it's just annoyingly unnecessary filler in a movie already chockful of it. Sage Kelley and Julia Reilly's abysmal performances only add to the annoyance. SPOILER ALERT Even Becky's reveal as Shane's sister and accomplice can't save her. Her villainous nature makes little sense (what exactly is she getting out of providing her brother with girls to obsess over/hold prisoner?) and Becky barely factors into the story after her reveal. She's just there to provide a haphazardly constructed twist and stretch the final act out even more. Plus, I can't get over how unbelievably calm Amara is when Becky "saves" her from Shane. What teenage girl is up for high school gossip right after narrowly escaping a psychotic kidnapper!? Spoilers Over

Though it's not like the film has much to offer once Shane enters the picture. The second half of the movie revolves around Shane and Amara's relationship and the conflict it creates between Amara and her mother. The homecoming hoopla will likely already have you irritated by this point, so having to deal with several minutes of flagrant grooming and teenage nastiness is sure to add to the headache. It's been a while since I've seen a Lifetime movie with such a frustrating mother-daughter relationship at its center. While they start the movie on good terms with each other, Amara's inappropriate relationship with Shane suddenly turns her into a naïve brat and Diane into a spineless woman who does little about her daughter's disrespectful attitude. The only thing keeping Amara somewhat sympathetic is all the grooming Shane inflicts on her, with Amara only wising up to his true nature when it's too late. Her being 16 and having never been in a relationship before can account for at least some of her gullibility regarding Shane.

As for main male players Shane and Paul, they're both routine characters just like Amara and Diane. Shane is your standard predatory villain whose manipulative ploys are obvious to everyone except his ingenue victim while Paul is a standard adorkable nice guy for Diane to fall for. Except, in this case, Paul and Diane's relationship is so ridiculously rushed that Zoe Cramond and John William Wright get no time to form any chemistry. They just go straight from introductions to going out for dinner and making out on Diane's patio. SPOILER ALERT The third act does offer up a nice little mental debate over whether or not Amara is right about Paul's geniality being a cover for his own dark secrets. Sadly, it's all too quickly proven that Paul is totally innocent and we have to go back to boring business as usual. Spoilers Over

The formulaic nature of these characters do the actors playing them little favors. Zoe Cramond and Emily Miceli (The Secrets She Keeps being one of the latter's first feature films) are nowhere near as terrible as Kelley and Reilly, but they still only give so-so performances throughout much of the movie. Cramond is given little to do as an average Struggling Widowed Mother while Miceli is stuck playing a Bratty Teenage Daughter you'll struggle to care about. At least both actors give serviceable emotional deliveries when the bloated finale puts both mother and daughter in harm's way. Keller Fornes is similarly "meh" at playing a "meh" villain. He's only further hampered by on-the-nose dialogue (which keeps good company with the script's other bouts of bad conversational writing) and his character bouncing back and forth between motivations. SPOILER ALERT It's never clear what Shane's deal is with Amara: is he really infatuated with her or is he just using her to get revenge on Diane for "stealing" his shop? It's as baffling as Becky's out-of-nowhere co-conspirator status. Spoilers Over John William Wright emerges from the trainwreck the most unscathed of the bunch. While he's still stuck playing a super generic Satellite Love Interest, Wright does what he can to squeeze a little bit of charm out of his cookie-cutter role.

On the lesser movie-breaking half of this film's flaws are the pair of notable effect snafus. There's an ADR botch job in the first half and a very obvious green screen used for a scene later on. But the story is where The Secrets She Keeps really obliterates itself. It takes ridiculously long for the action to get underway, and after it does, the movie still insists on dragging its feet. Not even the maddeningly convoluted and contrived climax has enough energy to make sitting through the rest of the movie worth watching. Add to that the unappealing characters and uninspired acting and you have a film with very few good qualities to make it worth recommending. If The Secrets She Keeps was a Tinder profile, it would be the kind you'd be quick to swipe left on.

Score: 1.5 out of 10 lighting ideas.