Playing with Fire (2025 Lifetime Movie)
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Cast: Kirsten Comerford, Stephen Adekolu, Brett Geddes
Director: Alexandre Carrière
Writer(s): Caroline Portu
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DonateDonate monthlyDonate yearlySynopsis (via Lifetime)
After a near-fatal house fire, Natalie and Loughlin, a struggling married couple, are manipulated by an obsessive firefighter named Jack, who schemes to pit the couple against each other to win Natalie’s affections for himself.
Recap/Wine Thoughts
The movie starts at a fire station, where firefighters are responding to calls in the area.
Natalie is an ER doctor who helps survivors of the fires at night, and by day, she is just a suburban wife trying to keep up with her household duties. Her deadbeat husband, Loughlin, doesn’t clean up around the house and is texting with a girl named Alison. Natalie deserves to be treated better, so she helps herself to a bubble bath and tries to relax.
Relaxation is hard to come by when your house catches on fire. Natalie climbs out the bathroom window and is saved by firefighters. (Specifically, a hunk named Jack.) The firefighters determined that the fire had started because a stove was left on. Did Loughlin intentionally set the fire?
The couple stays with Natalie’s friend, Alesha, arguing over who started the fire. Alesha suggests that they bring cookies to the fire station to say thank you. They end up staying for pizza and shooting some hoops. Jack shares that he lost his girlfriend in a fire, and he feels lucky to have saved Natalie. Natalie even reminds Jack of his dead girlfriend, Rebecca.
Jack can’t get Natalie off his mind and stalks her on social media. The lady firefighter clocks Jack’s inappropriate behavior. Jack goes above and beyond and hooks Natalie and Loughlin with an empty condo in his building. (Probs to keep a closer eye on his new obsession. With his nanny cams!)
Loughlin tells Natalie that he accidentally kissed Alison. She is understandably pissed and completely unaware Jack is recording the whole conversation. Jack uses AI to download Jack’s voice.
Jack breaks into the condo while Natalie sleeps. I think he lifts fingerprints off an iPad? This man is going all in on the identity theft.
The rift between the couple is short-lived and quickly made up with some make-up sex. They attend a fancy rooftop party with Jack as their third wheel. He is also a Debbie Downer and talks about his dead girlfriend the whole time. Loughlin tells Natalie that he thinks Jack has a crush on her.
Jack brings flowers for Natalie, and she creeps out. That doesn’t stop her from inviting Jack in. Loughlin walks in on them and is immediately jealous. Natalie is annoyed because she didn’t even do anything. (See making out with Alison.) Jack puts his plan in motion with the couple on the rocks and gets incriminating footage of Loughlin and Alison together at a bar. He sends the pictures to Natalie.
Loughlin gets a notification that his email has been hacked and tries explaining everything to Natalie. She wants nothing to do with him and kicks Loughlin out. Jack just so happens to come over with a lasagna and apologize for sending the pictures to her and wrecking her marriage.
Mandy, the lady firefighter, threatens to go to HR about Jack’s obsession with Natalie. He tells her that if she does, she will regret it. Poor Mandy doesn’t make it out alive. Jack strangles her to death. Then, he burns his arm with a lighter… YIKES!
At the ER, Jack claims he got the burn from work and is more than happy to play doctor with Natalie. Meanwhile, Loughlin is trying to figure out how he got hacked, and he looks into Jack’s past. Loughlin calls Natalie and tries to warn her, but there is a knock at the door. It is Jack.
The men get into a brawl. Jack gives Loughlin an ultimatum, leave or die. Loughlin picks die! (No, thankfully, Jack leaves Loughlin hog-tied in the closet.)
Natalie and Alesha go to a cabin for some rest, and they are surprised when Jack shows up. Jack claims Loughlin told him where they were, and he quickly deleted the voicemail Loughlin left. Then, he offers to let them tour the fire station with him. (You’d think they’ve seen enough!) Jack shows Natalie a picture of Rebecca and creeps her out.
Natalie finally does her due diligence and researches Jack and Rebecca. The rescue story is very similar to how Natalie met Jack and Rebecca took out a restraining order. It is too late because Jack is in Alesha’s sheshead starting a fire. The friends escape and watch in horror as the house burns down. Jack doesn’t show up with the other firefighters. He has been off the last few days. Meaning he couldn’t have been injured at work.
Natalie searches for Loughlin but can’t get a hold of him. Natalie returns to the condo and climbs over the balcony to get into Jack’s apartment and finds all his surveillance equipment. Natalie demands to know where Loughlin is. Jack tries to explain and claims he is just trying to help Natalie.
Natalie goes along with Jack and even pretends to seduce Jack and eventually stabs him with some scissors.
Three Weeks Later, Natalie moves into a new place with Alecia’s help. Loughlin is back on good terms with Natalie.
STRAY Thoughts
There were some incredible shots in here. I like this director a lot.
Overall rating
Number of Kills: 🔪🔪 (2 knives)
Lifetime Tropes: Stalking, cheating boyfriend, nanny cam.
Enjoyment Level (1-5 scale)
🍷🍷🍷 (3 Glasses of Wine)
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 at @LifetimeUncorked and @patrickmiguel.
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*Photo Credit: © 2025 A&E Television Networks, LLC
Let me know what you thought of the movie in the comments below or @lifetimeuncorked
When you don’t put a cork in the movie or poured it up, does that mean you’re neutral over the movie? Just curious. Or did you forget to highlight one of the options?
Usually it means I forgot! I think for this one in particular was was conflicted , but Firefighters get a Pour it Up for me!