The original movies that the Lifetime Channel produces tend to be a stark contrast to the ones that the Hallmark Channel provides. To name a few, Lifetime comedy films deal with topics as outlandish as ‘English versions of forbidden romance, stalking, and assassination, Many of them are marketed as “Ripped from the Headlines!”,’ Lifetime does feature some of the star casts but, there is a big difference in the type of faces Hallmark features on a regular basis. Their austere drama-focused movie, which is why is mildly shocking to see Amy Smart, Matthew Davis, and Billy Zane being featured in it as well as Ne-Yo, whose show of house arrest holds an utterly gripping thrill. Surely, the network concluded the vaults in order to gain these additional stars but that wasn’t the case. The movie was bought instead. The movie was or perhaps still is named Blunt with the initial plan for it to be only streamed on Netflix or Hulu, this much is self-evident. After watching the film you won’t be feeling astonished at all at what I’m saying.
The storyline follows, if that can be the case, Dawn Van Brocklin (Smart) who is excitedly seeking to rent out her house to random people. She rents out, via the Airbnb app, what she likes to refer to as the ‘Chalet in the Country’ in a bid to financially support herself and her son Charlie as she attempts to build a career in the art industry. Her ex Matt (Davis) has issues with the fact that she is renting out the property and now tells her that he will seek sole custody of Charlie because one of the lodgers she took in had t, in conjunction with arranging a family, a ‘dangerous’ situation at the property (I wonder how much these people remain in the dark). During the course of the movie, flashbacks explain how Matt was able to gain complete control and custody over Charlie. At the beginning of the movie where everything unfolds, we see the character Dawn lying on her bed at the hotel trying to figure out why she was hit on the back of her head with a stone.
Do you recall the Russian-looking lady who ran the house as a whore house? Or even remember how the Police assisted Dawn in getting it closed? Then, there was this gay couple who has a tendency to just rent a place and on the holidays, the wife close to figuring things out, claimed Dawn never cared about her husband’s safety. And then there were the few males and females who rented the same house for a role play and expected Dawn to be of assistance? She said someone once kept contacting her in an attempt to coordinate with her ‘fan’ manager who wanted to propose a strategy to pull things apart. For all the puzzled pieces, who did this seems the least insane to tell us otherwise.
Director and writer Anna Elizabeth James had what appeared to be a breakout feature on Netflix with the 2021 film Deadly Illusions but after evaluating the IMDb user reviews of the film, it is evident that the views regarding it are somehow similar to those of this one as well, and they are not particularly flattering either. Nonetheless, I have to give her credit for being amongst those few women in the filmmaking industry who dare to take on work that can actually be done. But this level of forgiveness can only go so far for James especially when the general opinion is that her movies are bad and more unpleasurable than what reviews show them to be. Her biography, which can be accessed online, states that James has an MFA degree obtained within the walls of the School of Cinematic Arts at USC and that further raises the question of what exactly is an MFA. There is not a shred of Writing ability on display in this movie. If being blunt, nasty, or straightforward is what it is, it is what it is and there is no avoiding it Held Hostage In My House was two hours of my life that I will never get back.
There are notable indie films that were made some time back but are not getting any financial aid to the people who created them even though they earned a good response, how is it possible for someone to come up with disgusting, poorly filmed, and executed movies to become a hit? Unjust Well, I won’t go that far as claiming that the film direction was terrible. At the very least, it does the work which is good enough.
The idea can be further improved by incorporating some facts like these since some of the edits still stand out among other films from her collection, there are good lights and lovely scenes but everything is anywhere near revolutionary. However, the writing could make one believe that James has never before witnessed a mystery-thriller but the rest of her films seem to fit in this genre. But then again, who doesn’t have a red herring in a mystery? I mean this one possesses so many that it would provide breakfast for twelve for herring and while the ending revelation is totally mad and will have you hooting at the television…wondering exactly what was Matt’s Plan B.
Furthermore, I would also contend that if you are going to put in the effort required to capture a person and place them in jail, then you must be prepared to go to them a couple of times in order to inform them of what you desire. They, I am sure, would rather be left to starve to death (and the fact that Dawn does not defecate on those bed sheets after spending over three days on that bed is, say, a welcome change from the real world). And what is even the point of including fire ants within the story and why are there a few pieces of peach pie inside the room meant for Dawn’s bed? Does she not bake pies prior to being put into the situation where she is taken hostage? But why would she accept placing them at the bedside in the first place for the fire ants to eat, which is unreasonable?
(Special fact, he extends his attention to ‘the only thing’ that does not concern nor is a threat to James.) There is a stunning level of incompetence all over the script, but we have to commend the entire site; only at the very end, they gave the rightful artist of Dawn’s Paintings all the respect due to him.
As for the credits, it is quite curious that the other obscene joke determines that he is going to keep this credit on his pages on IMDb. No one is surprised that Amy Smart, who is bored of the sweet girls and somewhat perplexed mothers (Stargirl), tends to want to do something more evil and dramatic, and she manages to do just that by having the audience root for the character of Dawn. But it doesn’t really matter that the ending of the movie is totally nonsensical, it is still nice to have her speak last. With respect to Matt Davis, yes, he does have a personality in whom one can imagine that one is in charge, and Greer Grammer, of course, endorses her performance in the role, so there is some doubt as to which of Plans A or B she is to remain (although she has been now at the film in one scene which one would expect her to be in on it which is so out of context whoever made the decision to mess her up with that makeup in that scene should be killed). Harrison Fox is still a decent child actor and you can feel the wincing when he does not want to talk to his mother when he is stuck on a camping trip with his dad.
Although Mr. Billy Zane and the fright wig he wears describe an atmosphere which is funny, it doesn’t come anywhere close to giving you an idea that Held Hostage In My House is even remotely watchable.
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