Villainess Review: Marianne Danforth (The Perfect Marriage)

I cannot recall exactly when I started watching Lifetime movies, but it was at least 20 years ago. During the early 2000s, Lifetime movies started to change, going from the usual plot of women being victims of domestic abuse and even sexual assault, to currently (and mostly) consisting of (usually) female protagonists being plagued by a crazed villainess. This film, The Perfect Marriage, was one of many that was part of that paradigm shift.

So in this one, the villainess is Annie Grayson, who is in a lucrative but unhappy marriage, which later ends with Annie (under the urgency of her illicit lover, Brent Richter) killing her husband with an overdose of potassium chloride. Four years passed, and we now see the renamed Marianne Danforth married to wealthy businessman Richard Danforth, and she is orchestrating a huge business gathering at the house. We see Marianne enjoying herself while conversing with Richard, Donald Danforth (Richard's father), and Tia & Kendra Montgomery (the former being Richard's colleague). All is well...until Marianne sees a familiar face in the form of Christopher, but she recognizes her as her ex-lover, Brent Richter.

Brent's attempt to seduce Marianne is rebuffed, as Marianne stated that she is happily married. After the party ends, Marianne remembers what ended her relationship with Brent: she caught him cheating on her, and he was using her late husband's money to pay his debts. Marianne even met with Brent to pay him to leave, though Brent suspected that Marianne was up to her old tricks and was planning to eliminate Richard, a claim that Marianne flatly denied while continuing to turn down Brent's advances.

But once she learns that Richard and Donald were close to completing a lucrative land deal, Marianne arranged a meeting with Brent, where she does reveal that she had been plotting against her husband and decided to plan out his murder with Brent. She informed Brent that Donald had to be out of the way, as Richard will inherit his wealth once his father dies, but as Donald suffered a heart attack, Marianne is left between giving Donald his nitroglycerin pills or letting him die, and chose the former. When Brent admonishes Marianne, he is informed by the villainess that Donald needed to remain alive until the deal (which is worth $30 million) is completed. There was one snag in their plan: Carrie, Richard's assistant. Carrie wasn't crazy about Marianne, and had suspected that something was up with her, leading to Carrie tracking Marianne to her meeting with Brent. Upon seeing Carrie, Marianne informed Brent about Carrie being an obstacle, and afterwards, Brent stabs Carrie to death.

Marianne feigns shock over the news of Carrie's death, and later on, the land deal is completed. With that, Marianne decided to kill Donald by injecting him with potassium chloride, and after committing the murder, we see Marianne voice her sorrow and state that she liked Donald. Marianne and Brent are later at a hotel room engaging in a tryst, and it later turns to the former reminiscing about their date at a casino, which led Marianne to reveal that her father once worked at a casino. She also revealed that her father had a gambling habit that left them with little money to even buy food, and when Brent asked what she did, Marianne stated that she refused to let another man hurt her...right before she took out a syringe full of potassium chloride and injected Brent with it; killing him in a clear act of revenge against him.

Marianne had one more obstacle in the form of Tia, as she started to look into Marianne's past. After finding out about Tia's investigation, Marianne attempted to kill Tia at the office's parking garage; an attempt and pursuit that saw Marianne injure Tia and remain relentless in her goal to eliminate her, but it would end with Marianne struck and killed by an oncoming car--a brutal demise for an equally brutal villainess.

The Perfect Marriage aired on May 22, 2006, and featured Jamie Luner as villainess Marianne Danforth (aka Annie Grayson). I recall this film being part of one of Lifetime's early themes for their films: the use of the word "Perfect" in their titles, with examples including The Perfect Neighbor, The Perfect Roommate, and The Perfect Wife (the third example featuring Jamie Luner's former Savannah co-star, Shannon Sturges, as the main villainess). I'm familiar with a lot of Jamie Luner's work; I mentioned Savannah, that was the first time I ever heard of her. I also know this: Luner has played her share of villainesses, but I think that Marianne Danforth is her best one, and that's saying something considering how interesting and epic Luner's villainous characters are--ranging from a philanthropist who is revealed as the owner of a dog-fighting ring (CSI), to a transgender military officer who committed embezzlement and multiple murders (NCIS), a businesswoman/villainous cult leader (Out of Reach), and even an evil elf bent on destroying Christmas (My Adventures with Santa).

Regarding Marianne, she was scheming, greedy, and quite the femme fatale, and Luner really portrayed her brilliantly. She was also quite convincing in her claim that she was happily married and was done with Brent and his schemes, though Marianne's heel turn after learning about the land deal truly showed how deceptive she was. And regarding her feelings about Donald, while it did appear that Marianne showed some semblance of care towards her father-in-law, the fact that she snuck up from behind before killing him was evidence of her cold and ruthless nature. Overall, Luner shined immensely in this villainous role, without question.

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