No new ground broken, but I thought it was a well-told story in a sea of nonsensical psycho movies with weak motivations. It's airing on Lifetime as My Father's Other Family, but I think Deadly DNA is a more interesting title.
I found the story to be plausible for the most part. I don't recall the movie saying what the father did for a living, so Shelby's home seemed a bit much with no explanation. It was probably so grand as to draw a distinct line between her life and Rose's, but Lifetime always uses McMansions that don't seem to match the careers or lifestyles of their characters. Even without the house, nice clothes, and nicer car, Rose was constantly reminding Shelby of their differences, so it's not like we could forget.
I thought both roles were played well. I believed them as sisters with the same father, but different mothers. I liked how they played Shelby eager to get to know and help her sister. It made sense since she was an only child who lost both her parents. So she was very naive and not thinking as clearly as she should. I do like that her boyfriend encouraged their bonding, but that Lifetime didn't do the typical sister tries to seduce her sister's man type of thing. The movie had a lot of Lifetime tropes, but I'm glad this wasn't one of them. Rose's actress played her subtly but noticeably to us, the audience, as resentful of her sister's life.
This movie had one of the most solid and believable villains in a Lifetime movie in a very long time. In so many of these films, the villains have such weak reasoning for their psychopathy, that you're like "ok, and?" But this one's was born out of circumstances that made it believable. Not justified, but believable. This is one of the better "I hate you bc our father abandoned me" movies that Lifetime has.
One part that didn't make sense was that apparently they've attempted scams before. Obviously this scam fell into their laps by way of a dna test and an eager relative, but it makes them less sympathetic if they were bad people before all this happened. The movie shows Rose's boyfriend as a bad guy, but they aren't immediately clear about whether she knows. But when the other scams are mentioned, it ruins the sense that they are doing this solely to get back at dead Dad.
I give this movie a 7/10. At a certain point, you'll figure everything out, but this movie is a still a good watch even with that.
I found the story to be plausible for the most part. I don't recall the movie saying what the father did for a living, so Shelby's home seemed a bit much with no explanation. It was probably so grand as to draw a distinct line between her life and Rose's, but Lifetime always uses McMansions that don't seem to match the careers or lifestyles of their characters. Even without the house, nice clothes, and nicer car, Rose was constantly reminding Shelby of their differences, so it's not like we could forget.
I thought both roles were played well. I believed them as sisters with the same father, but different mothers. I liked how they played Shelby eager to get to know and help her sister. It made sense since she was an only child who lost both her parents. So she was very naive and not thinking as clearly as she should. I do like that her boyfriend encouraged their bonding, but that Lifetime didn't do the typical sister tries to seduce her sister's man type of thing. The movie had a lot of Lifetime tropes, but I'm glad this wasn't one of them. Rose's actress played her subtly but noticeably to us, the audience, as resentful of her sister's life.
This movie had one of the most solid and believable villains in a Lifetime movie in a very long time. In so many of these films, the villains have such weak reasoning for their psychopathy, that you're like "ok, and?" But this one's was born out of circumstances that made it believable. Not justified, but believable. This is one of the better "I hate you bc our father abandoned me" movies that Lifetime has.
One part that didn't make sense was that apparently they've attempted scams before. Obviously this scam fell into their laps by way of a dna test and an eager relative, but it makes them less sympathetic if they were bad people before all this happened. The movie shows Rose's boyfriend as a bad guy, but they aren't immediately clear about whether she knows. But when the other scams are mentioned, it ruins the sense that they are doing this solely to get back at dead Dad.
I give this movie a 7/10. At a certain point, you'll figure everything out, but this movie is a still a good watch even with that.
