You Belong to Me (2008)

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Another piece of junk TV movie from Canada, YOU BELONG TO ME is a film of two halves. The first is a typical and cheesy stalker thriller in which a young mother, played by American PIE's Shannon Elizabeth, finds herself stalked by persons unknown, a psycho who stands around outside her house and provides a few POV shots.This being a made-for-television movie, you know things are never going to get too serious or violent and so it proves. There are sex scene cutaways and about two non-violent deaths in total. The writer gets bored with the whole predictable stalker plot around halfway through, so throws in a twist and then turns the film into a supernatural horror film. Elizabeth's character is consistent in that she still isn't believed. There's one special effect in the film, right at the climax, and it's very cheesy indeed. Elizabeth was pretty much the worst actor in the American PIE films and so it proves in this hopeless effort.

Alex Wilson (Shannon Elizabeth) is a Seattle book editor. She's worried about her son Danny being stalked by his father Julian from whom she has a restraining order against. Co-worker Denise Fisher likes new guy Michael McBride but he seems to like Alex more. A mysterious figure injures her boyfriend Chris and she immediately suspects Julian. The police clears Julian. Michael starts stalking Alex and falls off a cliff after struggling with her. She keeps getting harassed and then it turns supernatural.This is never going to be a great movie. The woman stalking movie isn't much but at least it makes sense. I am willing to follow the twists and turns. The movie is alright for the first half. Then out of nowhere, the movie turns into Poltergeist. It's a bad turn and the movie crashes. Shannon Elizabeth is a solid actress. Nobody else really shines in this. The first half is a solid 6. The second half could be a 5 but the turn in-between is a big fat zero.

*mild spoilers but read this instead of losing 103 minutes of your life* Like others, I started to watch this, had other commitments, and taped the last 90 minutes.. how do you define 'fast'? the speed with which I taped over that 90 minutes of media! the audience was expecting the 'new hire' to be the real culprit stalking our heroine when the 'plot' was pointing to the abusive ex-husband. of course, we were waiting for a twist so we could start to poke holes in the story. instead, we got some supernatural bizarre climax that looked like it came out of a short story written by a 10-year old... oh: and two people jump out of a speeding car and land on the grass with only a few bumps & bruises! hmmm -- I'm not sure which part of that conclusion was more juvenile.How sad: clever young writers of novels and screenplays are out-of-work and THIS gets made?Movietime? 'time' to get a real 'movie'...

The first half of this TV film is pretty good. OK, well at least it is watchable and interesting. However, right at the 56 minute point, the film takes a turn that makes the rest of it almost unwatchable. The actors seem to know the story has gone astray, because their once fine acting in it, becomes really sophomoric. While not a total waste of time, it comes very close. Too bad! Shannon Elizabeth, Christian Campbell (Neve's real life brother) and the actor who plays Chris really deserve better than this piece of junk! It's also unfortunate, though understandable, for the actors and actresses who are in films for the first time. This won't look good on their resumes. Save time, look for another LIFETIME film to watch. Some are quite good, but this one isn't.