Lifetime Review: 'The Wrong High School Sweetheart'

While her real estate career may be taking off, Danielle Taylor (Mea Wilkerson) doesn't feel as secure in her romantic life. Her relationship with her fiancé Todd (Doug Rogers) has felt distant lately, to the point where the date of their nuptials isn't even a topic of discussion anymore. Ironically, with her future so up in the air, someone from Danielle's past comes back into her life: Danny Brooks (Alex Trumble), her high school boyfriend. After connecting on social media and meeting up for drinks, Danielle is pleasantly surprised to find that Danny is just as charming as he was when they were teenagers.

But when a trip down memory lane leads to a passionate kiss, Danielle is shocked and realizes she needs to put a stop to what's going on. After telling Danny that what happened between them was a mistake, Danielle confesses to Todd and the couple rededicates themselves to repairing their relationship. But it's going to be harder than Danielle thought to put her indiscretion behind her. Danny isn't willing to let his first love go again and is ready to do anything to win Danielle back. This high school sweetheart is about to turn sour...

While it also occupies the same "My Boyfriend's a Psycho" subgenre of Lifetime, The Wrong High School Sweetheart proves to be a great deal better than The Wrong Blind Date. Not only is the pacing much more even, but the story allows the cast more of a chance to show their talents and it even does a little something to spice up its generic-sounding premise. That spice is applied through Danny Brooks, a character who initially seems to fit the Crazy Ex-Boyfriend archetype like a glove. But in the second half of the film, it becomes clear that Danny's obsession with Danielle isn't that straightforward. Rather than the usual Fatal Attraction-esque motivation, Danny's fixation on Danielle is more related to him wanting to recreate his high school/college experience. With an injury cutting his baseball dreams short, Danny misses the time when he was a revered athlete with a bright future and a beautiful girlfriend at his side. He's convinced that getting Danielle back will also bring back the good life he once had--and he's willing to eliminate anyone who gets in the way of fulfilling that delusion.

It's an interesting formula change and one that Alex Trumble does a remarkable job bringing to life. As Danny falls further down the rabbit hole, Trumble dives into his character's lunacy like Babe Ruth diving for home plate. Befitting a character obsessed with his youth, Trumble plays Danny as the grown-up version of an arrogant high school jock angry that a girl he likes doesn't return his feelings. His attempts to convince Danielle they're right for each other and interactions with those he perceives as a threat to their "relationship" reek of entitlement. It all comes to a head during the climax, where Danny devolves from acting like a smug teenager to acting like a petulant child. Trumble makes Danny's downward spiral as alarming as it is pathetic. After Danny is established as having parents rich enough to regularly send money while they're jet-setting around the world, you might see him as less of a broken man and more of a spoiled rich kid who never grew up and is lashing out because his life isn't exactly the way he wants it to be.

(A nice visual allusion to Danny's characterization: the letterman jacket he wears while he and Danielle visit their old school. It goes to show just how stuck in the past Danny is.)

Opposite Trumble is Mea Wilkerson, now taking the Wrong-verse spotlight after first landing a supporting role in The Wrong Cheerleader Coach. As likable as Wilkerson is as side character Claire, she's even better as main heroine Danielle Taylor. She makes it easy to like and sympathize with her character, even as she drops the ball with Danny. Neglected by her workaholic husband and stunned by Danny's return, it makes sense that Danielle is initially too blinded by memories of first love to realize that Danny is trying to break up her relationship. Once she comes back to her senses, she's remorseful and desperate to earn Todd's forgiveness (Danielle and the movie acknowledge that Todd's actions don't justify her infidelity) and get Danny out of her life for good. As Danny begins to wreck her life and his darker colors come out in the climax, Danielle's exasperation and fear are made palpable by Wilkerson.

That said, some of Danielle's decisions are uncharacteristically dumb. The first of these occurs when Danielle decides not to tell Todd about how Danny is continuing to stalk her, having shown up at an open house and cost her a sale. She even has the gall to say this before reminding Todd that they need to "stay honest with each other" to fix their marriage. She makes another daft decision in the climax, but at least there, Todd beats her to the punch by making an incomprehensibly stupid one:

WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW

After finding out that Danny has put cameras in their house, Todd decides that instead of going to the police, he'll just go on his own confront the lunatic he knows to be an unhinged stalker and suspects of also being a murderer. Unsurprisingly, this leads to Todd being taken hostage by Danny to force Danielle to come to their old school for their "last dance." Rather than bring along, say, a gun or a knife to defend herself, Danielle stuffs some kind of random ornament into her purse. Had she picked a more effective weapon, Danny closing his eyes for a kiss would've been the perfect opportunity for Danielle to more effectively subdue him and escape with her fiancé. Good thing she had Vivica A. Fox to conveniently show up and save the day. Ill-fated therapist Dr. Lawrence also gets in on the dumb decision making. While a knowledgeable doctor for most of her screentime, she sadly ends the movie doing the classic move of leaving an unbelievably vague voicemail for Danielle about Danny threatening her before getting run over in a poorly edited/filmed death scene.

Some other technical goofs appear at the end of the movie. The ADR used for Vivica's second title drop is horrifically obvious, as is the dialogue from Danielle's other adolescent sweetheart Rick (played by Jeremy Meeks). Ultimately, though, they're minor bumps in an otherwise fantastic finale that caps off with a hilarious potential sequel hook. Danielle might have another deranged ex-boyfriend to deal with, and I can already picture the sequel's title: The Wrong Summer Camp Sweetheart.

Spoilers Over

Most of the supporting cast is able to keep up with Wilkerson and Trumble, even if they don't get the chance to show as much emotional prowess as the leads. The weakest link is Doug Rogers, whose lifeless performance is complemented by Todd Taylor going from being a generic workaholic husband to being a forgettably bland husband who barely factors into the story...until the end when the climax is kickstarted by Todd being an idiot. Speaking of barely factoring in, it's baffling that someone like Eric Roberts was cast in this film to play such a pointless character. After one scene with Danielle, Detective Burns is inexplicably never seen or heard from again.

The other Wrong regulars are thankfully treated much better by the script. Tracy Nelson is super likable as the dedicated and compassionate Dr. Lawrence, making for a much more professional therapist than The Wrong Blind Date's Beth. Vivica A. Fox appears as Danielle's former principal/current best friend Dee Kressley, and in addition to giving another strong performance, Fox gets a standout scene in which Dee confronts Danny at a bar and blasts him for being an entitled loser trying to relive his glory days. It's the first time since The Wrong Fiancé that Fox has played a Wrong character who gets the opportunity to bash a villain to their face, so the cathartic moment is made all the juicier. Last, we have cameos from Wrong regular Jamie Bernadette and Wrong newbie Ryan Shoos as Amy and Jack, two people from Danny's troubling past. Bernadette and Shoos give emotional deliveries as it becomes clear both Amy and Jack have felt the brunt of Danny's obsession. Jack is especially sympathetic, given how clearly unhappy he is about how his life has turned out.

In addition to outdoing The Wrong Blind Date script-wise, The Wrong High School Sweetheart has much more energy than its predecessor. The story moves swifter, the actors have more room to show off their abilities, and the climax is infinitely more intense and lets the movie end on a high note. Mea Wilkerson and Alex Trumble deserve much of the credit for making the film so enjoyable with their top-notch performances. So if you're looking for a fun anti-Valentine's Day flick to enjoy after bitterly stalking your ex on Instagram, crack open a box of chocolates and give this one a watch.

Score: 8.5 out of 10 nostalgic staircases.