The Perfect Marriage (2006)

Truly Dreadful Film

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

A few years ago, still sexy Jamie Luner (as Marianne "Annie" Grayson) was in love with seductively sleazy James Wilder (as Brent Richter). They conspired to kill her husband and collect $250,000. After Mr. Wilder loses most of the money on "debts," Ms. Luner wises up and decides to start a new life. She marries successful businessman William R. Moses (as Richard Danforth) and settles down in Philadelphia. Of course, her past catches up with Luner. Wilder finds her and proposes they murder Mr. Moses, and his father, to collect $30,000,000. Getting tangled with the potentially lethal twosome is Mr. Moses' faithful full-lipped associate Sophie Gendron (as Tia Montgomery).***** The Perfect Marriage (5/22/06) Douglas Jackson ~ Jamie Luner, James Wilder, William R. Moses, Sophie Gendron

***SPOILERS*** It's when rich Philadelphia socialite Marrianne Danforth, Jamie Luner, threw a fund raising party for the homeless and orphaned children of the city that her shoddy past back on the west coast suddenly caught up with her.Showing up at the big event unannounced and uninvited is pretty boy Brent Richter, James Wilder. Brent's got some very pressing business matters to iron out with a shocked and outraged, in seeing him for the first time in four years, Marrianne who's anything but glad to see him. It was Brent, together with Marrianne doing the dirty work, who was responsible for the murder of Marrianne's first husband Martin Grayson, James O'Regan, back in California four years ago. A greedy and two timing Brent later screw things up for himself in splitting the life insurance money on Mr. Grayson's life. That's when he was caught with his paths down in a motel room with another woman by Marrianne who was then known as Annie Grayson. Now he's back for his share of the loot, $250,000.00, Brent will gladly rat Marrianne out to the police if she doesn't come up with it!At first not wanting anything to do with Brent Marrianne soon realizes that she's trapped in going along with his plan to not only get the 250 G's that she owes him but to likewise murder her now rich husband the doodled brained, in him having no clue to what his wife is planing for him, Richard Danforth, William R. Moses, and his father the head of the multi million dollar cooperation Danforth & Son Donald Danforth played by an elderly Huntz Hall, of the famous "Bowery Boys" series, look alike Lawerance Dane.The one thing that sidetracks Brent and Marrianne's plan is Richard Danforth's faithful personal secretary, that Marrianne treats like dirt, Carrie Holdings, Lisa Langlois, who smells a rat in what her boss' wife is planing for him. Carrie ends up paying with her life by snooping around in the bar where Marrianne and Brent secretly meet up and make their plans to do in her boss Richard Danforth. In the end it's Richard's business partner the sharp classy and on top of things Tia Montgomery, Sophie Gendron, who uncovers Marrianne and Brent's plan to do both the, father & Son, Danforths in! But that's not before old man Danforth ends up getting poked from behind with a deadly dose of potassium chloride by Marrieann when, drinking his morning coffee, he's not looking!***SPOILERS*** In the end Marrianne double-crosses her lover and partner in crime Brent Richter in order to keep all the money of Danforth & Son, some 30 million dollars, all for herself as well as keeping Brent from turning evidence against her if he's caught by the police. The one person who turns things around and puts Marrianne in her place is Tia who, after refusing to believe what she knew was true, was about to expose Marrianne's crimes to the D.A's office. This lead to a vicious and knock down and drag out cat fight, in a basement garage, between the two women that ended with Marrianne getting all that she's got coming to her. Not from Tia or a court of law but from a perfect stranger who unwittingly showed up at the right time and place to save Tia's life!

My two least favorite LMN actresses, that seem to work all the time are Jamie Luner and Sophie Gendron. One looks like she's the mother of most of her leading men and the other, with those thick lips that you feel would suction her to any surface. Hard to watch them.The plot is typical and reminds me of many other LMN film plots where the husband gets it from the bitchy wife who in turns either takes on with a younger man or the son of the husband, etc, etc. This movie is no different except it's hard to watch. Ah, Jamie and her hypo killing machine. And Sophie and her woeful looks. Better to watch the men folk, a bit more interesting. William Moses as the husband and James Wilder as the poor young fool who buys the bull she gives him. How many of these "perfect" film titles are there? LMN seems to conquer them all. For almost every day we see one or another.

First and foremost....kudos to Jamie Luner for a great performance as a she-devil Dr. Jekyl and Mrs. Hyde character. ( A HUGE improvement from her two previous Lifetime flicks where she was the resident heroine-in-peril.) This outing made a good bookend to the other end, "Blind Injustice". I posted on these very IMDb message boards that she should cease with the heroine-in-peril scripts, so I now feel vindicated...she is a heroine about as much as Theresa Russell was in " Black Widow". This was a pretty good effort on Ms. Luner's part.The short saga of this flick is a greedy wife Annie (Luner), with the help of a equally conniving back door man Brent( James Wilder in sleepwalking mode) scheme and kill Hub #1 for 250K in insurance money. Predictably, back door man Brent burns through about 90% of her share AND his. Fast forward several years and Annie(now known as Marianne)has new identity, new hub Richard (William R. Moses), high social status, and loads of money. Life is a bowl of cherries until back door man Brent shows up through the front door and Marianne returns to her scheming, murderous ways. Hint: This closet psycho loves potassium chloride and syringes....watch out for those nasty air bubbles! The body count is up to three by the time she sets out to waste her hub's co-worker Tia who is on to her nasty past.(Unbeknownest to Tia, Marianne is out to waste Richard too) Above average chase scene at the end in a parking garage. Jamie Luner does some great, open field running in boots for a gal of her height, 5'9".(I swear she could run the 50 yard dash faster than some guys) Credit the director for NOT having her character fall several times and bust her tush on a slick parking garage floor....which is predictable in some scripts.Catch it on Lifetime when it repeats, it was better than most thriller TV-movies you will see on any of the big three networks.