A Deadly Price for Her Pretty Face (2020 Lifetime)
Cast: Cassie Howarth, Marie Wagenman, Shawn Pyfrom, Kevin Fonteyne
Listen to the Lifetime Uncorked Podcast here!
Please buy me a coffee (or glass of 🍷) Support Lifetime Uncorked by leaving a $3 tip.
Synopsis (via Lifetime)
Amanda Archer, a young fashion model/single mother, is kidnapped by two brothers with plans to sell her to the highest bidder on the dark web, human trafficking site. Held hostage in a remote cabin, Amanda must do whatever it takes to escape her captors and get back to her daughter.
Thoughts
Amanda is a model or a pretty Canadian actor pretending to be a model. (She is a catalog model at best.) She takes pictures in culturally appropriated outfits next to a blue truck while her daughter, Zooey, is coloring in a trailer. Amanda is fighting an ugly custody battle with her ex, Nick. (He is an abusive and manipulative asshole.)
Court happens, and Amanda is popping off on Nick’s new girlfriend named Darcy. The judge is not impressed with her behavior or her lifestyle. (Amanda works two jobs and is going to nursing school.) While the judge considers the fact, Amanda makes a contract with her daughter promising they will be together forever. Too bad, Amanda gets a job offer with a New York modeling agency and leaves her daughter in the literal next scene.
At the meeting, in a secluded building during the middle of the night, Amanda finds Tyler, a man with a country accent and buzzcut. Amanda realizes that something is off and makes a run for it. (She even takes off her heels.) It doesn’t matter because someone in a FREAKIN CLOWN MASK chases Amanda and sedates her. (This movie is too scary for me, OMG!!!)
The next morning another man in a clown mask comes to the abandoned building. He, too, has a country accent and is Tyler’s brother, Sean. (Who was at the photo shoot.) They carry Amanda’s body to the car and throw her in the trunk. Little do they know that Zooey watched the whole thing from her mother’s car that she snuck into.
Detective Alverez is called and looks into the missing mother and daughter. They think it is strange that nothing is taken and that Zooey may have run away from home. Next, they interview Nick, who is not happy to hear about his daughter missing. He is still an asshole about it.
Amanda comes to and is gagged and tied. Once the gag is taken off instead of screaming for help, Amanda tells them that she is a vegetarian. (Haha! I guess she really is a model.) Sean and Tyler take pictures of her while she is tied up. I’m guessing for ransom. The brothers don’t seem to be in agreeance on their plan. Tyler has stage four cancer, and they are holding Amanda hostage for money to pay their medical bills? Sean uploads the pictures to a website called Night Terrors.
Remember, when Amanda said she was in nursing school? She gets herself untied and helps Tyler take his chemo shot. Then, once Sean starts getting aggressive, Amanda tries to make her escape. Amanda trips on a computer cord and sees the website. She realizes she is really in trouble. Tyler and Sean are working with Nick, Amanda’s ex-husband. (It doesn’t make sense, but I guess since he is a bad guy, he is a really bad guy.)
Amanda continues to talk to the brothers to try to get information out of them. Sean comes clean about Nick working with them and refusing to give them the ransom because his daughter is missing. Zooey is, of course, not missing and is found by detectives. The detectives also find the surveillance footage of Amanda’s abduction. (They track Sean by his license plate.)
Sean takes Amanda out on the town and IDK what is happening. First, they are trying to get meds for Tyler, then Amanda talks about being a pescatarian and shames a diner waitress about the menu options. Then she goes to the bathroom and tries to write a message on the stall door with ketchup and is, of course, caught by Sean.
Zooey is back with her father and Darcy. She cries and wants to be with her mommy! Later Zooey identifies Tyler.
While the brothers are fighting again, Amanda breaks free and almost escapes. Amanda is re-kidnapped, and they try to make a deal with Nick. Nick wants full custody in exchange for Amanda’s life and the ransom money. Amanda refuses the deal, and Nick is so angry he ruffs Darcy up too. (THIS GUY IS THE WORST.) The detectives show up and interrupt the domestic dispute. Darcy turns on her husband and tells them about Nick’s ransom plan.
Tyler can’t get his medication and is getting sick. Meanwhile, Sean is in a bar, and a news story about him comes on the TV. He holds the whole bar hostage and gets in a shoot out with the bartender. Sean is shot with a shotgun, and things have escalated pretty quickly. Can this movie be over now?
Amanda begs Tyler to let her go, and he musters up the strength to untie her VERY slowly. Then he passes out. Sean comes home with his gunshot wound and sees his brother on the ground. While Sean is trying to revive his brother, Amanda goes for the gun and struggles with Sean. As he is strangling her to death, she grabs a knife and stabs him. Then she takes Tyler the car, but she doesn’t see Sean behind them with another gun. To save her, Tyler jumps in the way of the bullet. Amanda shoots Sean dead and holds Tyler in her arms as he dies.
At the hospital, Amanda is reunited with Zooey. Nick is arrested, and Amanda gets full custody, obviously.
Side Note
Minority Report: Judge, Detective Alverez, Mr. Mobely
The only model in this cast is Kevin Fonteyne. That man is fine as hell.
Exhibit A:
Exhibit B:
Don’t forget to listen to the Lifetime Uncorked Podcast available on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts!
Donate to keep the blog and podcast going 😊
Overall rating
🔪🔪 (2 Knives)
🍷🍷🍷🍷 (4 glasses of wine required.)
*Photo Credit: © 2020 Lifetime
I love your writing style and your sense of humor 😆
Thank you! This commend made my day.
Where can I watch this film? I started watching it and had to pause half way though then dog changed the channel and lost the ending and cannot find it to watch except very bad recording on youtube. I don’t mind paying, I even have subscriptions to Hulu, Netflix, Amazon Prime etc., and cannot find it. Please advise. Thank you.
Oh no! I’m so sorry Jennifer. I can’t find it streaming either. I know the movie is also called Model Citizen, maybe try that? Good luck!
Does anybody know what car was used in that movie by the kidnapping brothers?