While They Were Sleeping (2025 Lifetime Movie)
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Cast: Alicia Leigh Willis, Taryn Nelson Di Capri, Natalie Stavola, Alex Trumble
Director: Brittany Underwood
Writer(s): Brittany Underwood, Nick Roth
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DonateDonate monthlyDonate yearlySynopsis (via Lifetime)
When Zoe wakes up to find her husband murdered beside her in bed with no memory of anyone entering their home, she becomes the prime suspect. To clear her name, she must uncover the real killer and stop them before they finish what they started.
Recap/Wine Thoughts
The movie starts with a home invasion by an intruder with sensible boots. They look over the sleeping family and shoot the husband, William, while his wife, Zoe, and teenage daughter, Jess, sleep through the entire thing.
Couple/Detective partners Rachel and Adam are on the case; they think it is unlikely that the family REALLY slept through the murder. Zoe, the stay-at-home stepmother, is the prime suspect. There is no sign of forced entry, and whoever committed the crime was familiar with the house. Robin, the ex-wife, is also on the suspect list due to a custody battle over Jess.
There is a montage of a sad girl, Zoe, making eggs and bacon for breakfast for a party of one. Oh, wait, she brings breakfast in bed to Jess. (Shouldn’t they get out of there, since it is a CRIME SCENE?! Just saying!) Jess can’t bring herself to eat because she is too distraught, but Zoe reasons that Coach David would want Jess to keep her strength up for her upcoming meet. (Again, let’s focus!! There has been a MURDER!)
Detective Rachel questions Robin, who admits that she was addicted to pills and then heroin, which wrecked her marriage, and she lost custody of Jess. Rachel checks Robin’s alibi, and she says she was out at a bar with her boyfriend, Dean. Robin also implies Zoe is sleeping with Jess’ track Coach, David.
There turns out to be a $ 2 million life insurance policy on William, and Zoe looks even guiltier. Her BFF, Angie, brings over a casserole and is almost knocked out with a candlestick. Angie, a divorce lawyer, tries to offer her friend some advice, but it doesn’t amount to much. Zoe tries to see if William has any secrets, but she doesn’t even know the password to his computer. (She later figures it out, TEAMFAMILY, which is a terrible password.)
Coach David is next on Detective Rachel’s list. He sings Zoe’s praises, but his alibi is at best shoddy. He wears a size 10.5 shoe, though, and by the looks of those boots, they were at LEAST a size 12.
Zoe finds threatening Emails on Williams’ computer from Robin. Robin, unfortunately, writes that she wishes he were dead. Robin’s alibi is solid, and Detective Rachel corroborates it while playing pool with Dean in a dive bar. (Or are they working together to murder William for money?)
Jess has had it with her stepmother and spends the night with Robin and Dean instead. They eat Lasagna, and it looks disgusting, but Jess needs to carbo-load for her big track meet. Robin chugs wine while inviting herself to Jess’s track meet, even though drinking violates the condition of her parole.
Someone puts a snake in Zoe’s car, and she is late for the track meet. Robin is quick to point out that she was at the track meet on time. While the mother argues, Jess collapses during a race and faints. Jess turns out to be dehydrated, maybe from the Lasagna!!!???
Zoe searches through Robin’s trash and finds a pair of boots. She tells Detective Rachel, who freaks out on Zoe for committing the crime of going through someone else’s trash. Detective Rachel advises Zoe to hire a lawyer, so Zoe tries to hire her best friend. Who probably killed William to frame her friend, maybe?
Williams’ funeral finally happens, and Jess ditches Zoe to be with her birthmother and loser husband instead. Everyone thinks Zoe killed her husband. Everyone, except Coach David, who inappropriately makes a move on Zoe. Did he kill William to get Zoe for himself?
The bartender at the bar lied to cover for Dean and Robin, providing an alibi. After Zoe and Detective Rachel interrogate him, he extorts the shadet couple for more money to keep their secret. Jess overhears the conversation and thinks something suspicious is going on. She looks through their mail and notices a lot of past-due bills. Jess also finds a cabinet full of prescription pills and the murder weapon.
Stepmother and daughter plan to go to the police, but Robin gets to them first. Then Robin meets with Jess to explain her side of the story. (But really, she drugs the teenager and waits for Zoe to return.) Robin takes a kitchen knife and admits she hired a hitman (AKA Dean) to kill William after he wouldn’t consider joint custody.
Zoe listens to Robin’s ranting and can’t believe her ears. Detectives burst in and stop them mid-knife wrestle. Zoe has security cameras and caught the whole incident for them to review! Robin is arrested. The end!
STRAY Thoughts
The SEO for this movie is terrible because it is so close to the hit movie, While You Were Sleeping.
Brittney Underwood writes and directs this one. It wasn’t my favorite, but I’m happy she is getting the opportunity to be creative in different ways.
Generally, going through trash left out for collection is legal, as the act of discarding items and leaving them out for garbage collection is often considered to be entering those items into the public domain.
More Alex Trumble, please. This shocked face was sending me.
Overall rating
Number of Kills: 🔪 (1 knife)
Lifetime Tropes: Mother/Daughter, Widow, drug addict, bad boyfriend, high school sports
Enjoyment Level (1-5 scale)
🍷🍷 (Glass of Wine)
Should you watch it?
Put a Cork in It! (Skip It)
What are your thoughts on the mo ie? I’d love to hear from you. Share your comments or connect with me on social media at @LifetimeUncorked and @patrickmiguel. Your perspective is valuable.
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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
Acting was mediocre. Plot was OK. I was so easy to guess. Who the culprit was
The female detective was honestly the worst character. At first I could sympathize with her losing her sister to DV. But as a detective she was being very unprofessional, treating every character (especially Zoe) as if they were a suspect and just being incompetent. I was getting the impression that she’d turn out to be the killer which I think should’ve happened. And her motives for the murder would be that the husband had connections to her sister’s abuser in some way. Idk that’s just my opinion of where the plot should have gone. I wish Alex Trumble was in the movie more. He kinda just showed d up very briefly in a few scenes.