Villainess Review: Grace Hutchinson (The Baby Swindler)

I spent months looking forward to this film after learning about this from Reel One's website, and I beamed when it finally hit Lifetime! My reasons will be stated later, but let's set the stage. The main focus of this film, The Baby Swindler (originally titled, A Deadly Surrogacy) was widowed Susie Ashcroft, whose husband, Mike Ashcroft, passed on prior to the films events. The only thing she had left from Mike was a frozen embryo, and she was planning to finally have a baby of her own, but she was told that there was a chance that she couldn't maintain a full-term pregnancy.

After confiding in her brother, Andrew Hutchinson, and his wife, Grace Hutchinson, Susie decides to take in a surrogate, but she isn't satisfied with any of them. However, Andrew presented a perfect surrogate for his sister, a young woman named Lorna Morgan, who was the sister of a friend of Andrew's, Paul Morgan. Susie and Lorna bond, and we see Grace help Susie prepare for the latter's upcoming baby--a daughter. Though regarding Grace, her happiness for Susie is shown to make up for the heartbreaking revelation that she and Andrew have had problems conceiving, and later on, Grace informed Susie that her last chance at IVF has failed.

Susie continues to get to know Lorna, but that is interrupted by a motorcyclist nearly running down Lorna. It doesn't end there for both women, as Susie is on the receiving end of various threats and stalking (even while Susie was visiting Mike's grave), and while Andrew doesn't seem too concerned, Grace is--especially after Lorna is suddenly missing. A search sees two things: one, Lorna's real name is revealed as Madison Clark, and two, Susie tracked Lorna's brother, Paul, and learned about his criminal activity.

Andrew and Susie's attempt to save Lorna from Paul falls short, and even worse, Susie's friend Helen (who had also been informed about what had been going on) is suddenly murdered. After seeing a number of documents with Mike's signature, Susie tells everything to Grace, who claimed that some time ago, she spotted Mike with another woman. Susie didn't know what to think. She found herself believing that not only was Mike actually alive, he was pulling some sort of scam against her, with Lorna/Madison possibly involved somehow. Later on, Susie ended up abducted by a masked culprit, and found herself in a building where Lorna was held captive as well.

After Susie angrily confronted Lorna, the whole truth ended up being uncovered. Mike, of course, was not involved in any of this; it was Andrew all along. As Lorna revealed, Andrew had been forging Mike's signature to take money from their company, and regarding Lorna, Andrew lent her money and juiced up the interest rates. He would use Lorna's debt to him to force her to commit grifts, with the big con centering on his own sister. Andrew was looking to obtain Susie's life insurance money that was left to her by Mike, and Andrew's appearance revealed that he had borrowed money from some bad people (always seems to be the case) and needed an escape plan. His pursuit of both women actually saw him take out a gun from one of the drawers, but relief appeared to come in the form of Grace, who took the gun from her husband's possession.

Keyword being, "appeared," as Grace suddenly took the gun and pointed it towards her sister-in-law, with intent on killing her. Grace's heel turn revealed that while her husband committed the crimes, she was behind the wheel the entire time, and as Grace revealed, money was one motive--the other was the baby. Regarding Lorna, Grace stated that her life will depend on how long she "decides to play ball," though we know that once the baby's born, they'll do away with her. Grace ordered the women to head to the rooftop, where Susie delivers an NHL-esque check to her evil sister-in-law. As both women fought, Grace provided an added villainous reveal: she had Mike killed as part of her evil scheme, with Andrew committing that murder as well. She even had the temerity to say that while she liked Susie, she really wanted that baby; it always amuses me when villains say that: "I love you so much, but I have to kill you." Andrew's protest regarding killing his sister was met with Grace giving a crazed reminder that she was his wife, but that allowed Susie to send her sister-in-law over the rooftop. So in all, Grace was deceased, Andrew was arrested, Lorna/Madison is off to travel the world, and Susie has her baby daughter: named Michelle Lorna Ashcroft.

The Baby Swindler aired on Lifetime on March 31, 2023, and featured Ashley Alexander as the evil Grace Hutchinson, an absolutely delicious villainess. Reel One's trailer gave away Grace's heel turn in the final moments, though I figured she'd be evil; Lifetime delivers a lot of baby-crazed madwomen in their films. We see Grace as chipper as ever, even in the face of heartbreak regarding her infertility, but it's all a front. If you remove Grace's mask of friendliness and concern, what's left is an unhinged and ruthless mastermind who was willing to lie, steal, and even kill to get her ultimate goal: a baby of her very own. I keep thinking back to Susie's line about her brother's marriage; she said that she saw Andrew and Grace as the ultimate couple and was in awe, yet it turned out the true jealous one was Grace, and she went from 0 to 60 when it came to her villainous unmasking.

Another thing I loved: this was Ashley Alexander's second Lifetime film with co-star Rhonda Dent; both women appeared in 2022's Big Lies in a Small Town. It was interesting because while both women were good characters in the first film, their second film together sees Alexander on the heel side against Dent. While I do have hopes that Rhonda Dent will portray a Lifetime villainess in the future, I did enjoy Alexander's villainous role; Alexander portrayed all of Grace's facets very well. She truly made us believe that Grace was a supportive and sweet woman, which made her unveiling as a maniacal villainess very, very delicious. An absolutely amazing performance from Ashley Alexander, who has also done two other Lifetime films: The Unauthorized Melrose Place Story and Identity Theft of a Cheerleader. Alexander has also done several films on Hallmark, including (but not limited to) one of their mystery films, Mystery 101: An Education in Murder.

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Check out Grace Hutchinson's profile on Villainous Beauties Wiki!