Man of Her Dreams (1997)

"Man of Her Dreams" (also known as "The Fiancé") is a 1997 made-for-television melodrama. The protagonist is a young woman who, in a moment of weakness when she believes her husband is being unfaithful, has a one-nighter with a seemingly thoughtful man named Walter. The unfaithful woman's name is Faith, who spends the balance of the film asking herself the question, "What have I got myself into?" It turns out that Walter is a psycho, who held his previous wife captive until she blew her brains out. Now, he will stop at nothing in order to tear Faith away from her husband Richard. In one of the oddest images of the film, Walter keeps intoning the word "gardenias." But it is never made clear how and why the gardenias figure in Walter's pathological thinking.The best line in the film comes when Faith, having recognized that Walter has destroyed the life of his previous wife, killed Faith's kind neighbor, butchered Faith's best friend, and nearly electrocuted her husband to death, casually informs Walter when he has her at gunpoint, "Sorry, wrong girl." Faith proves indeed that she is force to be reckoned with.

This movie kept my attention all the way through, waiting to see what would happen. The only problem is that there wasn't any real lesson to be learned here, other than "don't have an affair", which should hardly need saying. What would have earned a higher score from me would have been to showcase some sort of syndrome or personality disorder and illustrate something about that. As it is, the villain doesn't seem to match anything. He acts like a psychopath some of the time, but shows some emotions which appear genuine at other times (and they occur when he's alone, so it isn't that he's faking them; he had no audience). He just appears to be a semi-generic Really Messed Up Person.The acting is pretty good and the entire production is sufficient for a low-budget psycho-thriller. If you just need something to watch for an hour and a half, this will do. Just don't expect anything terribly deep from it in the end.

A happily married woman Faith (Lysette Anthony), has a one-night stand with Walter (handsome William R. Moses). Turns out he's a psycho and wants her to leave her husband (Patrick Cassidy). She rejects him and...guess what happens?Thoroughly predictable but not bad. The script is very well-written and all the actors give out good performances (even Cassidy whose part is criminally underwritten. Also, Wanda Acshna is fantastic as one of Faiths friends. Also the film wins extra points for keeping the violence down to a minimum.No great shakes but well done. An enjoyable time killer.

This film was very good with much suspense through out. I do not understand why the movie has a 5.2 user rating. It was very entertaining and kept me at the edge of my seat. I saw this on the cable network, FX and for a Cable TV movie. this movie was better than most. It kept my attention and since I watched it late at night while laying on the couch at times and that I did not fall asleep that is quite an accomplishment. Although it is predictable and not quite in the same league as "What Lies Beneath", I would definitely recommend this movie to my friends and family.