The Perfect Soulmate (2017 Lifetime)

The Perfect Soulmate (2017 Lifetime)

Stars:  Cassandra Scerbo, Alex Paxton-Beesley, Scott Gibson

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Synopsis (via Lifetime)

On the outside, Sarah Miles appears to have it all: her husband is charming and successful, and their daughter Megan is bright and engaging. Having put her once successful career as a published poet on hold to raise Megan, Sarah now shares her writing on her poetry blog. But there’s a terrible truth lurking behind the doors of her suburban mansion… despite his polished persona, Sarah’s husband is controlling, manipulative, and abusive. Isolated and desperate to escape her marriage, Sarah welcomes the newfound attention of her devoted fans, a bookish young woman named Lee Maxson. But as Sarah gets closer to Lee, she begins to discover that she’s found an even more dangerous companion.

Thoughts

Sarah is a married redheaded blogger who is married to a handsome hunk and has an adorable daughter. Her life is perfect.

Lee’s life is brown, and her life is a little less glamorous. She takes care of her sick and verbally abusive mother. Lee has no friends. Lee eventually has had enough of her mother and lets her die from a bad fall in the middle of the night. Then she just leaves the body on the ground.

Maybe Sarah’s life isn’t as perfect as it appears, her hunk husband cheats on her. When Sarah tells her husband Daniel that she is leaving him, he takes off his clothes and heads to the shower. While I appreciate the shirtless scene, he is kind of scary!

Lee works at a bookstore/cafe and puts in a call with Sarah’s manager for a poetry reading. Lee publicizes the event, and it goes well. The two women bond over their verbally abusive relationships and Sarah agrees to an interview. Little does she know that Lee is now stalking her in addition to being obsessed. 

Sarah consults a divorce lawyer and is found out by Daniel. He tells her that he will get full custody and then slaps Sarah. His physical abuse doesn’t last long because Lee murders him in a parking garage. Sarah learns of her husband’s killing and throws his wake and funeral. Lee shows up and is surprised Sarah is grieving him; she thought she would be thankful. Sarah is grateful to have a new friend, though. 

Things start looking up for Sarah. She gets a new book deal, Lee moves into her home to help proofread, and Nina, the nanny, has been putting in extra hours around the house. The friends even go out for a wine night to celebrate all of Sarah’s successes. Sarah tells Lee that things aren’t as good as they seem. The detectives suspect Sarah hired a hitman to kill her husband. (The detective scenes in this movie were very dull.) Lee tells Sarah to say she was her ability. 

Jealous is a dish be served cold, or whatever, Lee puts rat poison in Nanny Nina’s water bottle and puts her out of commission for a while. There is also the handsome publisher, Will, who monopolizes all of Sarah’s time with book events. When Lee oversteps by sharing some of Sarah’s poems with another publisher and telling her that she is glad Daniel is dead.

Sarah puts some space between Lee and herself. Blocking Lee’s phone number and kicking her out of her house. Sarah is beginning to realize all that Lee had been stalking her and is obsessed. (In real life, this is when you would file for an order of protection.) Sarah attempts to tell detectives, but they still suspect her, especially with the wonky prenuptial agreement. Sarah then resorts to hiring a private investigator. 

The PI gets a flashlight and snoops around Lee’s house. He doesn’t find anything, except Lee, with a gun, she kills him. Poor PI, I think you had like two lines.

Realizing that she can only rely on herself, Sarah fakes a makeup with Lee. Sarah goes to Lee’s house and makes her dinner. For dessert, Sarah serves pudding with a laced with sleeping pills. Lee starts to feel off and goes to the bathroom. She realizes that she has been poisoned and tries to throw up the pudding but passes out anyway. While she is out, Sarah steals a bunch of damning evidence (like the gun.) and is out of there before Lee can wake up. When Lee does wake up, she calls the detective and accuses Sarah of killing Daniel. Sarah is pulled over with the gun, and it isn’t a good look.

The movie goes off the rails here, and it is a lot to take in. Will helps Sarah do some investigating. They learn that Lee murdered her father from an old friend of Lee’s. Then they send Sarah’s daughter away with Nina had miraculously recovered. Will spends the night, but it is not sexy. Like, what is going on? 

Lee breaks into the house and knocks out Will while he is asleep on the couch. Lee pulls a gun on Sarah and tells her that she thought they were SOULMATES. (Finally, I’ve been waiting for the whole movie.) Lee admits to killing Daniel and her father. (Her mother is forgotten by now.) Lee is going to stage Sarah’s murder to look like suicide. Lee forces Sarah to write a suicide note on her blog. The writing is so “beautiful.” that Lee is momentarily transfixed. Sarah seizes the opportunity and grabs the gun, but Lee gets away and leads to Nanny Nina.

Lee kills Nanny Nina and holds the hold at knifepoint. Sarah burst in with a gun and gets her daughter back. Police sirens are heard in the background as Lee cries that she feels betrayed and alone. Lee turns the gun on herself and commits suicide in front of Sarah and her daughter. It is pretty traumatic.

Sarah reads some poems from her new book at an event. The end!

Side Note

Minority Report: Jay. 

Lee’s story arch was disturbing and sad. 

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Overall rating

🔪 (1 Knife)

🍷🍷🍷🍷🍷 (5 glasses of wine required.)

*Photo Credit: © 2017 Lifetime