The Preacher's Mistress (2013)

Struggling single mom who has nightmares of a past abusive relationship starts dating a guy who's too good to be true. I normally don't watch these types of made-for-TV movies. I prefer the lighter ones, like romantic comedies and Christmas movies. But I like Sarah Lancaster so I decided to give this a shot. As I feared, it's not very good. All of the twists are telegraphed far in advance. I mean, the promos for this and every synopsis you find online gives out major plot elements anyway but assuming you went into this completely oblivious to all of that, I still think you'll figure everything in this movie out at least 20 minutes before the main character does. Also they hammered home how hard up she is financially to the point that it became kind of annoying. In the first half-hour they couldn't go a full scene without this chick reminding someone that she's broke as a joke. And yet she lives in a nice house, drives a nice car, wears nice clothes, etc. It was unbelievable. Oh and the Value Mart conversation between her and her friend was hilarious to me. I think this was supposed to make us relate to Sarah's character and think "Wow, this woman has to shop at discount stores! She's like people!" It's pretty funny. The acting by all involved ranges from terrible to adequate. It's not like the material is challenging but I guess people strike out in softball, too. On a superficial note, Sarah is stunningly beautiful and Natalia Cigliuti is pretty easy on the eyes, too. So there's that.

Imagine a world in which you can't trust anyone but your mother and NOTHING is as it appears.Such is the setting for "The Preacher's Mistress," which was pretty bad, but not so bad that I didn't want to see it through to its conclusion.It is extremely formulaic in that, if you're experienced with Lifetime movies, you can see the plot twists from a mile away. From the moment we see that Gwen has a flat and the preacher materializes from nowhere to fix it, we know exactly where this nihilistic story is heading.The movie treats the viewer like a fool, virtually underlining, underscoring, and adding exclamation points to help us grasp that Sidney isn't the insightful friend she appears but rather a cunning fiend. I have to admit I liked the performance of Sarah Lancaster. She does well in the entirely believable position of a woman who trusts the charming guy she goes to bed with. (Is there a woman out there who doesn't identify?) I agree with a previous reviewer that the movie ends on a saccharine note, tying everything up in a bow that turns the dystopia of this film into a fairy-tale fantasy. Er, OK.

Lifetime has some of the worst movies but this is at the top , the acting was the worst, and some of these actors CAN act but not here. I was laughing all the way through, its just plain horrible, I'm going to start writing a script now and sell to lifetime, obviously they pay for anything. the scene on the top of parking garage when they kidnap girl from "Chuck" OMG could they be any worst actors in the world , I don't think so....... If this network is going to spend the money on movies for this channel its just as easy to film good movies as it is bad. and this one is bbbaaaaaad! Looking forward to Flowers in the attic at least I know there is talent in this show, why cant you keep all your movies/shows at this caliber

This movie is a delightful addition to my favorite Lifetime category which I lovingly call "Get The Bitch." It's when the lead actress finally does something so stupid that you're compelled to start rooting for the villain. This time it's when our lonely lovely is distraught enough to confront her bad-beau at his church - an idea so terrible that she then deserves everything that happens afterward - as well as before.To be clear, this movie was quite enjoyable overall as a good many of the movies in the "genre" are. A woman with a young boy becomes a damsel in slight distress and is befriended by a a man who, quite naturally, becomes her boyfriend. Of course, nothing is what it seems to her, even though we know exactly what's happening. If the title itself doesn't offer enough of a clue, "The Preacher's Mistress" is soon over her head with enough problems to last a lifetime - possibly quite literally.But while her naiveté and stupidity are actually very believable, the ending isn't, and as a viewer, that's distressing because the final scene of endangerment could have easily been done, say, as an attempt to stage suicide, with our poor mistress being saved in a nick of time by the private investigator her mother had hired to follow the no-good boyfriend.Instead, we got a preposterous denouement in which the investigator had to be idiotic enough, not to mention close enough, to allow it all to happen before our drugged heroine saves both herself and P.I. guy. Then, throw in an instant romance and roll credits.