The Stranger She Brought Home (2021 Lifetime)
Cast: Cameron Jebo, Lesa Wilson, Jeffrey Dean Morgan,
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Synopsis (via Lifetime)
Amelia, a 911 Operator who likes to secretly insert herself into the lives of her callers, pretends to be the fiance of an injured man who has fallen into a coma. When he wakes with no memory, she decides to keep the ruse going, and convinces him to go home with her; but as her life intertwines with his, she learns that he is a man with a dark secret–he’s a killer on the run. Lesa Wilson, Cameron Jebo. (2021)
Thoughts
The movie begins in a 911 call center, which is a first for Lifetime. Amelia is an operator who is smooth under pressure. However, her boss, Trent, is a creep dating a redheaded co-worker named Steph and asks Amelia to talk about sex tips to pleasure her girlfriend. He is not only inappropriate; he also abuses his power and mistreats Amelia on the job. (What a dick!)
The next day Amelia breaks protocol and visits one of the victims she helped over the phone in the hospital. The mother of the catches her in the hospital room, and Amelia pretends to be a social worker named Emma? (Whaaa? Why?) Amelia steals a page in Sammie’s notepad. She collects tokens from everyone she has helped and keeps them in a closet. (Which is strange.)
Emma comes home and finds her boss having sex with Steph in the living room. (He has a dumb arm tattoo, but he is in good shape, so I’ll let it slide.) Amelia doesn’t and ignores Trent when he asks her to join in.
Back at work, Amelia gets a call about a pedestrian being hit by a car. It haunts her, and she visits the comatose man in the hospital. When a nurse catches Amelia by the man’s bed, Amelia goes all Sandra Bullock and pretends to be his fiance. She even names him Daniel Jones. The nurse is thrilled to have a family member for John Doe and tells Amelia to talk to “Daniel” about how they met. Amelia lies, lies, lies.
Daniel wakes up and is terrified that he is on a breathing tube. He doesn’t remember his name or that Amelia is his fiance. (Because she is not.) Amelia doubles down and moves “Daniel” into her home and kicks out her roommate Steph.
Daniel starts asking questions about the accident and his family. Amelia lies again and tells him HIS WHOLE FAMILY IS DEAD?!?! WHAT?!?!?! She also tells him that he has no friends and only his cellphone was destroyed in the crash, so she has none of his contacts.
There is a serial killer in Atlanta, and everyone is on edge. (Especially redheads because the killer is strangling them.) The media even uses #RedHeadedKiller. While everyone watches the news story, Trent is back and threatens Amelia again. She FINALLY looks into reporting his ass.
Amelia shows Daniel around her home and tells him about her family while constantly asking, “Do you remember that?” It is messed up. He understandably asks where her pictures of him are and about his social media. Amelia laughs it off and tells him they value seclusion. Daniel shares flashes of memories that are coming to him about the accident. He wants to remember his life, but he also wants to love Amelia. She swoons when he tells her that she is the only thing keeping him going.
A co-worker named Michael wants to speak up about Trent, even though he also asked Amelia out on a date. He looks Amelia’s address up at work and shows up at her house. She tells him off and asks him to respect her privacy.
Amelia and Daniel have sex. Then they talk about moonlight. Daniel tells her that he thinks she is hiding something from her. Amelia tells him about Trent.
When Amelia goes to report Trent, he is already there saying that Amelia is harassing him. Stephanie corroborates his story. Trent grabs Amelia in the stairwell, and she knees him in the balls. Stephanie finds him in the stairwell and slaps him to make it look like Amelia assaulted him. Trent files a restraining order.
With Amelia out of the house, Daniel is free to snoop around. He walks around the neighborhood and sees a redheaded woman fighting with her husband. (So many redheads in this movie.)
Trent drinks some beer and eats popcorn. He is murdered by someone in a hoodie and then hung to make it look like a suicide. Steph finds the body and is horrified. Daniel asks Amelia if she is relieved when they hear about the death. (Which is a weird thing to ask.) Michael also asks Amelia about Trent, and she thinks he may have killed him. Amelia tells Daniel that Michael is obsessed with her.
Stephanie is convinced someone killed Trent and Amelia tries to prove that she wasn’t responsible. They drink wine and talk but are both attacked by the hooded figure. They are tied up and bound with duct tape. Daniel had his memory the whole time, AND he is the #redheadedkiller. He killed Trent and Stephanie to keeps Amelia with him.
Daniel tells Amelia that if she doesn’t go along with his plan, he will kill her and frame her for the murders. Then he passionately kisses her when she agrees to go along with his plan and work together to con/murder people. Amelia is just lying again, and she chases after him with a fire poker.
A VERY confused mailman sees Amelia run out of the house, and he finds the body. Poor guy was just doing his job in a bucket hat.
Amelia goes to her goth friend for help and asks for the police report from “Daniel’s” car accident. They find out Daniel’s real name is Henry, and he witnessed his parent’s murder. His mother had red hair. Henry/Daniel has been killing redheads because they remind him of his mother.
Henry/Daniel can’t help himself and goes after the neighbor he saw fighting with her husband. She sees him sneak up behind her in a teapot and shoots him with a gun. IT IS SHOCKING! Amelia shows up at the crime scene. The neighbor shares that she was there the night Henry/Daniel was hit by the car. They saw him get hit and didn’t report it.
The police say they chase Henry/Daniel off a bridge, and he jumped. He is presumed dead. He isn’t, of course, and shows up at Amelia’s house battered and bruised. He tells her that he wants to be with her. Amelia tells him that she loves him again and stabs him with some scissors. Henry/Daniel strangles her until she passes out. Then he wears himself out and passes out on top of her. Amelia gasps for air and ironically calls 911.
Amelia wakes up in the hospital with Michael by her bed side. He is the one who answered the 911 call and they are going to be together now. Oh wow, I hate this ending.
Side Note
Minority Report: Sammie, Tabitha, Officer Kitchens, Zeke, Detective,
Cameron Jebo is my favorite Lifetime bad guy because he looks so sweet, but he is sooooo bad.
So much shirtlessness couldn’t save this movie. Without anyone to root for since the lead was a liar/stalker, I was rooting for the bad guy the whole time. That is not how these are supposed to go.
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Overall rating
🔪🔪 (2 Knives, added one for Jebo)
🍷🍷🍷🍷🍷 (5 glasses of wine required.)
*Photo Credit: © 2021 Lifetime® | A+E Networks®
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I really enjoyed this movie because there was no clear-cut good guy. In fact, given the loose screws that the protagonist had, I kind of wanted her to fully embrace her crazy and be with Cameron Jebo at the end. They could’ve fled and lived happily ever after or gone to hospitals together and do mercy killings of red-headed women.
If the ending you outlined happened. I WOULD HAVE LOVED IT!
So when does Jeffrey Dean Morgan show up