Villainess Review: Rose (A Mother's Sacrifice)

It surprises me that this film, similar to 2004's Deception, didn't air on Lifetime, because the feel is definitely there. I watched this on Tubi because I'm trying to finally whittle down my vast list on there (I have it down to 12 movies), and this movie truly delivered. A Mother's Sacrifice centered on Kathrin Beck, a divorced mother of a teenage daughter, Josey Beck, and we quickly see that it's an "oil and water" relationship between those two. A heated argument that some can attribute to teenage angst, but afterwards, Kathrin's attempt to contact Josey results in Kathrin hearing distress from Josey.

Kathrin informs her ex-husband, Stefan Beck, about their daughter, and it's around this time that we also meet the woman who's closing in on being Stefan's second wife, Rose--she of the somewhat upbeat demeanor and the English accent. We learn quite a bit in this quest; for example, Josey was seeing an older man--Ben, and as for the search itself, we see Kathrin receive the typical "see what turns up" response from police. Even those closest to her say Josey's "being a teenager," but as we see, Josey's holed up somewhere, clearly being held prisoner.

Kathrin's visit to Stefan's house sees her encounter Rose, who is clearly obsessed with her and Stefan's wedding, though she continues the whole "sweet-natured stepmother" role and reveals that she knew about Josey and Ben. Things become quite interesting when we see video of Josey actually stealing her father's money, and that starts to put the kibosh on Kathrin's quest. Josey's branded as a runaway and a thief by many, even Stefan, who's nose is so wide open that Justin Tucker could use it as a goalpost for his long field goals. As Kathrin looked at the video, however, she noticed something was missing: Josey's neck tattoo, which was one of the main subjects of their argument.

Kathrin had always known that the woman in that video was not Josey, and the lack of body ink proved her right. She and Stefan, with the police, went to Ben's warehouse, as he was the prime suspect in the abduction, but nothing turned up, much to Kathrin's heartbreak. Ben was later interrogated about Josey, meanwhile, Stefan returned to Rose, as they were set to be married at that very moment. However, Stefan informed Rose that they had to postpone their wedding, as he was needed to do a press conference regarding Josey, only for Rose to lash out at Stefan for abandoning their impending wedding, while dismissing Josey's ordeal. Despite Rose's verbal lashing, Stefan's focus on his daughter remained intact, and it resulted in Rose actually knocking out Stefan with a "unity statue," whatever that is.

So yeah, Rose is behind it all, and after learning about Rose's attack from Stefan, Kathrin decided to track Rose, doing so all the way to a house where Kathrin finds Josey held captive. The mother-daughter reunion is interrupted by evil stepmother-to-be Rose, who held the pair at gunpoint and revealed everything that she had done. Of course, it was Rose who disguised herself as Josey and robbed Stefan's account, doing so to not only set up Josey, but to also make Kathrin appear to be insane. The abduction was committed because Josey was the remaining obstacle in Rose's goal to have Stefan, and his finances, all to herself, and Rose added that she was hoping that Stefan would see Josey as an "entitled, spoiled brat." Since that failed, Rose proclaimed that she's done with Stefan, and plans to eliminate him after she kills Kathrin and Josey, who fought off the villainess and escaped.

Even so, Rose continued her pursuit and attempt to kill the pair, but Kathrin managed to tackle the unhinged woman (who was still in her wedding dress, mind you) and disarm her. As both women continued their scuffle, Josey picked up the gun and ordered Rose to let go of Kathrin, and when that fell on deaf ears, Josey fired her shot, putting a permanent end to Rose's villainy.

Again, A Mother's Sacrifice has the Lifetime-esque plot, title, and yes, villainess, but never hit the network. It was released some time in 2017, and featured Kirsten Lea as the evil and deranged Rose, who was so deliciously wicked. I had Rose pegged within 10 seconds of her first appearance; I mean, come on. She's the stepmother, for one, plus there's that over-the-top upbeat demeanor. Rose was laying it on pretty thick, and usually, when characters like that lay it on that thick, they're hiding something. In the case of Rose, it was someone. Rose was absolutely greedy, insane, and flat out ruthless. The ruthless part was emphasized during Rose's heel turn--she knocked out Stefan with a statue! If that's not 0 to 60, I don't know what is. Even though the hint of Rose's evil demeanor was there, that moment saw an outright transformation from the cheery persona to a sinister villainess who doesn't tolerate any obstacles in her path.

The English-born Kirsten Lea truly knocked it out of the park in this role. She portrayed Rose's concerned and upbeat personality to perfection, but the way she would later act out Rose's evil and insane demeanor was so delicious. I honestly think that Lea stole the whole film, and Rose has to be one of the best Lifetime villainesses to never appear on the network. We would see Lea on Lifetime two years after this film; she appeared in 2019's Deadly Excursion.

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Check out Rose's profile on Villainous Beauties Wiki!