good back-story, and good acting

As Good As It Gets

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Blistering performances.

The former lead star of the 1983 movie "Flashdance" Jennifer Beals stars in this Lifetime TV movie entitled "A Wife's Nightmare" together with Katherine McNamara and Dylan Neal.This Lifetime television film directed by Vic Sarin tells a story of young woman Jackie,who visits a family and tells the husband and wife - Gabe and Liz - that she happens to be the daughter of the husband towards a former girlfriend.Liz,who just had a mental breakdown,did her own investigation and found out that the nineteen year old Jackie provides them a false information and that her husband is having an affair with the Jackie.This led Liz to cast both away from home.This maybe a simple story.No question about it.But Jennifer Beals provides a good performance to somewhat overlook the simple screenplay.Added to that,her interesting performance made it a lot better than a typical standard TV "A ______'s Nightmare" movie.

Oh my God what a lame and poorly executed piece of trash this is. Believe me when I tell you that this review will concisely and accurately detail the mess that this show is and if you still decide to watch it, then I accept no responsibility for your inevitable brain aneurysm. A mother played by Flash Dance herself, Jennifer Beals, suffers a mental breakdown and while she recuperates in hospital, her husband starts a tawdry affair with a 19 year old town bike who works at a local record store. Clearly this guy is tired of his wife so he and this tramp concoct this ridiculous story that she is his long lost daughter who unexpectedly turns up at the house just after the wife is discharged from care and is trying to pick up the pieces of her life. Of course there's the usual pretence of this girl could be but she may not be so let's get a DNA test and make it all look legit. Meanwhile as they await the results of this test, the husband gets a bit too touchy-feely for the wife's liking, especially seeing as this girl is supposed to be his daughter, but he's easily able to dismiss her fears as nothing more than a remnant of her recent mental instability under the guise of either, 'why would he do this to a 19 year old' or 'why would he get inappropriate with what could potentially be his daughter'. Naturally the wife reluctantly buys it and this jerk gets a reprieve. Not long after the wife wakes up in the night to find the daughter skulking around the house. She notices that her computer is on and finds that some important work file has been tampered with. She doesn't learn her lesson for some reason and her computer is accessed a 2nd time and an entire presentation has been erased. This upsets the overseas client who no doubt takes his business elsewhere, the wife is fired as she's considered to be taking on too much too soon and I can't help but think why anybody wouldn't automatically have some back-up on a flash drive secured at her office, but it's a Lifestyle program so that alone adds to this improbable "nightmare".The wife confronts the daughter twice about the computer tampering, the daughter queues the water works both times, the father naturally backs her up, seeing as he's sleeping with her and the wife is thinking that's she's descending into madness again. To make matters worse, the fake DNA results are in so fake daughter is further ensconced into her adoptive family and their journey towards the dark side is almost complete. However the whole plan unravels when the son comes home and walks in on father and fake daughter screwing; mother comes home soon after where son spills the beans, father tries his useless best to blame everybody else for his infidelity and failed music career so fake daughter starts whimpering and admits to the shady doings that even blind Freddy can now clearly see. Wife kicks husband and his whore out of the house, son reunites with his mother and they all live happily ever after. In my opinion the whole story is one huge plot hole from start to finish. How they thought this scam was ever going to work is a mystery. What was the father going to do with his son? If his goal was to get rid of the wife and replace her with a younger sluttier model, then how was he going to explain sleeping with her when he's already introduced her to everybody they knew as his daughter? Were they planning on keeping the relationship a secret for the rest of their lives? That's the only way this could ever work as well as relying on his son or anyone with a brain not using deductive reasoning, eventually figuring it out and going to the authorities. The long lost daughter story is just dumb. It'd work a lot better if this girl were ANYTHING else other than a blood relative. So as I've said earlier, this is the whole story and if you still decide to watch after you've been carefully forewarned then you deserve the vegetative state you'll end up in.

Following a nervous breakdown, attractive businesswoman Jennifer Beals (as Elizabeth "Liz" Michaels) is sent home from the psychiatric hospital. With help from some balancing medication, Ms. Beals believes she can also return to work. This is great news, because handsome musician husband Dylan Neal (as Gabe) is still looking for a best-seller, after completing two albums. The couple have one son, cute high school-aged Spencer List (as AJ). For some unexplained reason, Mr. List can't attract a pretty girl at school. After grocery shopping one day, mom and dad are accosted by beautiful blonde 19-year-old Lola Tash (as Caitlin Patterson). She claims her recently deceased mother named Mr. Neal as her father...This makes the sexy young woman Neal's daughter from a brief relationship, occurring way back. Presently living in her car, Ms. Tash is invited into the family. Now, remember Ms. Beals had a psychiatric problem. At first, she accepts Tash as a step-daughter. But Beals starts to see Tash getting very chummy with the family. One scene has Tash spilling a drink on her ample chest, with the camera moving in to show Neal patting out the wetness as it drips down her cleavage. Tash also makes slightly younger List giggle when tickling his upper thighs as they play video games. Beals witnesses these incidents and thinks they may not be so innocent. They are not explicit enough for us to know what's going on, supposedly...In reality, it's fairly obvious...This "Lifetime" TV movie never gets away from its formula, but director Vic Sarin and the cast do make it slightly better than ordinary. This is most evident in the four leading players. They remain convincing, as Mr. Sarin keeps their characterizations on track through some idiocy. Beals does not seem like she could have been crazy, but we're not shown that part of the story. List says he loves the "Underground Records" shop where Tash works, but does not recognize the gorgeous blonde who worked there is his new sister. Yet, List portrays his young teenage character very well. The opening minutes go overboard in showing Tash's emotions, but she's quite impressive. Finally, Neal definitively nails his daddy role home.***** A Wife's Nightmare (12/27/14) Vic Sarin ~ Jennifer Beals, Lola Tash, Dylan Neal, Spencer List

The poorly-written premise here, supposedly based on 'true events', is about a 19 yr old girl who finds her father after her mom died. The first 70-odd minutes of this movie has a vanilla, almost Disney-like feel to it. The final 15 or 20 will actually be worth it for some, and another predictable and thus disappointing end to others.While I must admit that I did not fully have the end-game all figured out early-on like some, the 'twist' still came with little shock simply because these types of movies almost always read the same.Don't get me wrong, there are some few shreds of entertainment value to be had here. For me it was the presence of Jennifer Beals as the troubled and tormented mom. For others it might for all I know be the very slight hints of incest. Still others might enjoy its slow pot-boiler suspense (if you can call it that) with G-rated language.But the sad fact is that those who are looking for a well-written well-directed and well-acted dramatic masterpiece are in for a letdown. I gave it 4/10 stars, 3 for Beals' presence, and one more for Lola Tash (spelled as "Trash" btw in the Shaw Cable listings writeup for this movie, lol) who was a pleasant surprise. Jenn Beals deserves better than this, and I hope to see Lola in some bigger budget productions in future where she can really show her talent.