Tempted by Danger (2020 Lifetime)

Tempted by Danger (2020 Lifetime)

Cast:  Keshia Knight Pulliam, Michael Xavier, Gabrielle Graham

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Synopsis (via Lifetime)

Sisters, Nicole and Angela, are highly driven and successful in their careers. Angela is married with a baby on the way and wishes Nicole, a rising attorney, could have more balance in her life. When Angela interviews and hires a new bright executive, Michael, she sets him up with Nicole, who actually makes time to date him. The relationship seems promising until it becomes clear that Michael is moving much more quickly and obsessively than Nicole can handle.

Thoughts

A woman in a scarf is casually wandering through an abandoned warehouse. She is using her cellphone for a flashlight and gets grabbed from behind, cut to the title card.

Rewind to the scarf lady who, Nicole, now in a power suit and is a cutthroat lawyer. Nicole is about to make partner and is already being poached by rival firms. (She is that badass.) Speaking of bad, bad acting KWEEN Keshia Knight Pulliam plays Angela. (Nicole’s pregnant sister.) Angela is proud of her sister Nicole for becoming a lawyer but wants to set her sister up with a man. (Eye roll.)

Angela and her husband Rick set Nicole up with hunk Michael. Nicole and Michael hit it off and are both very driven and competitive. He asks Nicole for an official date. Afterward, Nicole gabs with her gay-co-worker, Kyle, who is thrilled for her and has more tips on how to secure that partner spot. Michael gabs too, but with Angela. The music is ominous, so I’m pretty sure one of them is evil. 

The first date happens at a shooting range. Nicole owns a gun and is very proficient, Michael is not. More gabbing occurs afterward, and Angela keeps giving Michael way more information than she should. (Like what gym Nicole goes to, and her social security number.) After the meeting with Angela, Michael calls Nicole to boast about his fantastic dinner reservations at a hot restaurant, “The Beast.” Nicole cancels on him because of work commitments, and he is salty AF. Rude actually. When Nicole tries to reschedule, he is noncommital and cold. 

Angela is disappointed that her sister “always puts work first” and tries to convince her to set up another date. Nicole isn’t interested because of Michael’s behavior, but Angela makes excuses for him because she wants her sister to find a man. 

Michael begins stalking Nicole. He joins her gym, and they have a casual run-in. Then he follows her to a work meeting with Kyle that looks more like a date. Afterward, Nicole meets up with Michael at her favorite bar. She puts on an Armes scarf and gets a little too drunk. She invites Michael over to her house for a late-night hook up. (The movie cuts away, no shirtless hunks here…)

The next morning Michael meets up with Angela for another meeting/get more intel on Nicole session. When he finds out that Angela’s husband is a stay at home dad, he warns her that her husband may be stepping out on her. Michael shows her a tracking app on his phone and suggests she download it to check on her husband. This weirds Angela out, and she starts to have a bad feeling about Michael. (Finally!)

Nicole makes partner and invites Michael to celebrate with her co-workers. Michael is preoccupied with watching Nicole and “work husband,” Kyle talking and laughing. He is very jealous of Kyle. Another co-worker, Lisa, thinks she recognizes Michael, but he brushes her off. When Michael makes an excuse to leave the party early, Kyle becomes suspicious of Michael. The rivalry between the men gets worse when Nicole skips a weekend at Michael’s cabin to work with Kyle on a case. 

Over the phone, Nicole pumps the breaks on the relationship with Michael to focus on work. He is confused because the day before she gave him a copy of her house key. Michael accuses Nicole of having an affair with Kyle, and she sets him straight, but he angrily hangs up on her before she can finish speaking.  

Michael starts wearing baseball hats/Hoodies and renting cars shadily. (Using a fake ID.) He drives the rental car to Nicole’s firm, spraypaints the security camera in the parking garage, and runs down Kyle with said rental car. Kyle wakes up in the hospital with a neck brace. Nicole is by his side and promises to take over the case. Michel shows up at the hospital with flowers… for Nicole. She tells him he is inappropriate, stupid, and creepy AF. Rightfully she refuses the flowers and tells Michael to go home.

When Angela hears about Michaels strange behavior, she promises her sister; she will set things right. (It is her fault, after all.) Angela sets up a meeting with Michael at work. She tells him that Nicole needs to focus on her career, and it is nothing personal with Michael. Michel is understanding. Only he isn’t. He continues to stalking Nicole. Michael keys into Nicole’s house, stealing her trial briefing and her gun from under her bed while she is sleeping!!! (Nicole is a heavy sleeping, but does eventually wake up and looks around.)

 Due to the loss of the trial briefings, Nicole gets FIRED! (Gabrielle Graham does some excellent acting here and cries real tears.) Hilariously, Nicole visits her work husband in the hospital. They take swigs from a flask and drowned their sorrows. Michael watches the whole thing from the hospital hallway. He is 100% stalking Nicole. Since Nicole is distracted by the significant changes in her life, she isn’t worried about Michael anymore. Angela, on the other hand, is and cautions her sister to be more careful. 

As Nicole is packing up, her co-worker Lisa mentions that Michael looks just like her friend’s ex-boyfriend, Todd. Nicole searches Todd online and finds a criminal record. Angela’s co-worker Padma is also getting intel on Michael; it turns out he isn’t a client! Padma tries to tell Angela, but she left work early due to a fake email sent by Michael pretending to be her husband. 

Angela gets abducted by Michael and used as collateral to bring Nicole to him in… a warehouse. That’s right; we are at the beginning of the movie. Nicole is wandering around the warehouse in a scarf with her phone flashlight.   

After getting grabbed by Michael, Nicole is maybe tied up to a rickety chair. Michael has a shrine to Nicole and has been stalking her for over a year. Michael wants to leave the country with Nicole and made her a fake ID. He waves a gun around and tells Nicole his plan for their future, and Angela is not included in that plan. Nicole sees Angela is starting to wake up and pretends to be in love with Michael. Michael is so excited that he doesn’t notice Angel sneaking up behind him and hitting him in the head. Nicole grabs the gun, but Michael has a backup. 

Michael raises his gun to shoot Angela, but we know Nicole is a better shot, and she takes him out. Bullet to the heart. 

Six months later, Angela has a new baby, and Nicole has switched firms. When a hunky man named Michael shows up at the party, both sisters look the other way. Totally uninterested. Haha! 

Side Note

Minority Report: Nicole, Angela, Lawyer from the other firm, Michael, Rick, Lisa, Padma

The costume design in this movie was excellent. 

Michael Xavier was great in this movie. I loved his ability to click over from charming hunk to stalker creeper.

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Overall rating

🔪🔪🔪 (3 Knives)

🍷🍷🍷 (3 glasses of wine required.)

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