Dying in Plain Sight (2024 Lifetime)
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Cast: Raffa Virago, Nicola Correia-Damude, Carlos Gonzalez-Vio, Raven Dauda
Director: Michelle Ouellet
Writer: Lydia Genner
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DonateDonate monthlyDonate yearlySynopsis (via Lifetime)
Inspired by true events. The emotional story of overweight high school student Morgan Cruz and her mother Kim who both harbor dark secrets that lead to devasting circumstances. When Kim leaves her cheating husband, she becomes so focused on “clean eating” that she doesn’t notice Morgan has stopped eating altogether. While Morgan receives positive validation for her changing body, privately, she begins to experience the terrible side effects of her disorder. Morgan’s cries for help seem to fall on deaf ears until she’s hospitalized for life-threatening malnutrition, leading Kim to finally realize how her own disordered eating was a terrible influence on Morgan, pushing her to the brink of death. Starring Raffa Virago, and Nicola Correia-Damude (2024).
Recap/Wine Thoughts.
The movie begins with Morgan making a girly scrapbook. She is a lover of poetry and reading. Her best friend, Emmy, has a crush on a girl and a popular TikTok account on which she posts dance videos. The comments are RUDE and talk about Morgan laying off the french fries. Emmy isn’t letting the haters get to Morgan and validates that Morgan is beautiful and awesome. (Good friend.) Emmy can’t stop Morgan’s biggest hater, Morgan’s mother, Kim.
Kim obsesses over her daughter’s weight and has Morgan on Weight Watchers and multiple doctor visits. Kim counts every calorie her daughter eats and asks the doctor to put Morgan on Ozempic. The doctor tells Morgan she needs to lower her BMI, eat less, and show self-control. (The constant monitoring of Morgan’s food intake makes her feel disgusting.)
Morgan accidentally finds texts on her father’s phone and discovers he is having an affair with an influencer named Ashleigh. Kim is not pleased! Kim kicks her husband out of the house, and Morgan blames herself for imploding her family.
Kim stalks Ashleigh on social media and comes across an account called @AmberEatsClean. Kim watches videos of the influencer and focuses on “clean eating.” She cleans the house with any “bad” foods to help her and her daughter be “healthy.” Then, she takes Morgan shopping for organic/superfoods at the grocery store. An Almond Mom (a parent who follows incredibly strict or dangerously unhealthy eating habits and attempts to force them on their children.) at the grocery store, Amber, gives them positive feedback and tells the mom and daughter to stick with clean eating. The stress and focus on food causes Morgan to skip meals altogether.
Morgan tutors a cute boy at school, and he compliments her appearance. She starts to wonder if he likes her because she lost weight. Morgan has lost so much weight that she has missed her period, and her hair is falling out.
Kim takes her daughter to the gym, and they work with their new trainer. Kim also takes a meditation class and is so focused on bettering herself that she doesn’t notice her daughter is looking rundown and hanging out with Gage in an abandoned warehouse.
Morgan smokes weed with Gage and his popular friends. Her bully is there, but his girlfriend shames him for being a dick. The girlfriend, Amiee, asks Morgan to smoke weed. When Morgan expresses her concern about the munchies, Amiee explains that she can eat and “get rid of it.” It is a script we’ve seen since the 1980’s. “Everyone’s doing it,” “You can eat anything you want and not gain a pound.” Morgan binges while high and then throws up in a trash can.
Emmy actually has a video go viral, and she gets an opportunity to apply for Alvin Alvey’s school of dance as a choreographer. She asks Morgan to be in the video and feels betrayed when she learns Morgan ditched her to hang out with Gage and his friends. The BFFs are growing apart, and Morgan is becoming more secretive.
Kim’s friend Jenn meets the Almond Mom and is put off by her unprompted healthy eating advice.
Morgan sneaks out and takes more drugs with Gage; they almost have sex, but she isn’t ready. (Duh, this girl was making a scrapbook with STICKERS!) Morgan continues to skip meals, throw up in her room, and hide uneaten food in her closet. Kim is none the wiser.
At her Weight Watchers meeting, Morgan notices an eating disorder support group and feels out of place when a thin girl says that if she looked fat, “she would kill herself.” Morgan pushes herself even harder in the gym, and her WW counselors give her positive reinforcement for losing weight. (Unaware of the drastic measures she is taking.) Morgan passes out, and Kim insists that Morgan go to the doctor.
The doctor doesn’t think anything is wrong with Morgan and suggests that she lose more weight to be healthy. It is weight-biased and prevalent among doctors.
Gabe continues to pressure Morgan into having sex, and he succeeds in breaking her down. He also continues to give her drugs. Morgan sends nudes to Gage and starts falling behind on her schoolwork. Gage shows his friends her nudes.
A school teacher asks Morgan if she has atypical anorexia. Morgan laughs it off. Then, she gets into a fight with Emmy over her new friends. The whole school knows she has sex with Gage. To add insult to injury, Morgan continues to get bullied online.
Emmy reads Morgan’s journal when it falls on the floor and sees the dwindling WW points tracking how little food she has been eating. When Kim and her husband learn that Morgan has been faking her food journal for them, they are confused and surprised. Kim searches Morgan’s room and finds laxatives and hidden vomit and food in the closet. (It’s not as disturbing as Calista Flockhart throwing up in jars, but a similar moment.) Morgan screams at her mother how she has made her feel terrible about herself. Then she passes out.
At the hospital, Kim and her husband learn about the complications of Morgan’s atypical anorexia. Morgan is in a coma with a feeding tube. Kim is dumbfounded, but her friend Jenn tells her it was learned behavior. (Good for that friend for delivering that difficult parenting observation.) The doctors offer an inpatient eating disorder clinic and then an outpatient program. Kim feels it is too extreme, but the doctor explains that it is an extreme situation.
Morgan goes into cardiac arrest, and everyone is shocked!
Morgan wakes up from her coma and admits that she has been extreme dieting since she was ten years old. Her parents put her in treatment, and with work, Morgan makes a recovery. She lets go of the control over her food and works with a therapist and group to help her. Morgan is learning to be grateful for her body and learning to not listen to the voices telling her she is not enough.
Side Note/Stray Thoughts
If you need help: Eating Disorders Helpline
Call the ANAD helpline toll-free:
1 (888)-375-7767
ANAD’s free, eating disorders Helpline is available to provide emotional support and referrals. Call us for any of the following reasons:
- If you think you have an eating disorder
- If you think someone else has an eating disorder
- Treatment referrals
- Support and encouragement
- General questions about eating disorders
Lifetime has avoided the Eating Disorder movies and attempts to put a different spin on things here. While I appreciated the inclusion of Orthorexia, I’m not sure this breaks any new ground with Lifetime’s depiction of eating disorders. This movie sensationalized the fact that overweight people can have eating disorders, too.
Having weight loss commercials as sponsors of this movie is a BIG MISS, Lifetime. WTF!
I recommend checking out Aubrey Gordon’s anti-diet podcast Maintenance Phase and her book, You Just Need To Lose Weight: And 19 Other Myths about Fat People. #Ad
An estimated 9% of the U.S. population, or 28.8 million Americans, will have an eating disorder in their lifetime. 15% of women will suffer from an eating disorder by their 40s or 50s, but only 27% receive any treatment for it. Learn more here
Overall rating
Number of Kills: N/A – Not that type of Lifetime Movie
Enjoyment Level (1-5 scale)
🍷🍷🍷 (3 Glasses of Wine, performances were good.)
Should you watch it?
Pour it up! (Give it a shot)
Put a Cork in It (Skip It)
What did you think of the movie? Let me know in the comments or on social media @LifetimeUncorked & @patrickmiguel
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*Photo Credit: © 2024 Lifetime® | A+E Networks®
