Not My Life (2006)

***SPOILERS*** Mind numbing movie that's a lot like that 1991 brain twister "Shattered" about not exactly knowing who you are with Tom Berenger and Greta Scacchi. In this case Alison Morgan, Mededith Monroe, has been suffering from memory loss since a very tragic incident happened to her in the not so distance past.With her attention span or memory never going back to about a year Alison is given these heart condition drugs by her concerned and doctor husband Steve, Ari Cohen. Steve knows the secret to his wife's problems but keeps it from her in order that Alison doesn't suffer another nervous breakdown that after she suffered her first one that almost had her institutionalized over a year ago.It when Alison has a miner fender-bender that her mind or memory starts to recover and glimpse of her past start to come into focus. Going to see a cardiologist Dr.Jennifer Prasad,to check out her heart condition and the medication she's taking for it Alison discovers that there's nothing at all wrong with her ticker but that there's, in the drugs her husband is giving her, something very wrong with her brain! In that it's being kept from thinking in what happened to her to put Alison in the condition that she now finds herself in now!***SPOILERS*** Hard to take Lifetime mystery movie that manipulates the audiences' brains like it does it's major character Alison Morgan's true identity. An identity that's being totally obliterated by her "loving" and "cearing" husband Steve who in fact need far more help in his own severe mental problems than she does! It's when Alison realizes that she's in fact not who she is, Alison Morgan,that she hired private detective Michael Woods, Jack Kruegher,to check out both her and Steve's past which ends up leading to his murder. To even things out gender wise the nosy Dr.Prasad also ends up getting it by uncovering the fact that Alison is being chemically brainwashed to keep her from remembering her dark past that her husband Steve is doing everything possible, even contemplating a lobotomy, to keep her from remembering!Watching this movie you feel as if your being brainwashed into thinking that it's outrageous and totally unbelievable plot makes any sense in the real or even world, the movies, of make believe. But as hard as you try to make some sense out of it the more you begin to realize just how senseless it is.

**Review Contains Spoilers** I really liked this movie, one of the better Lifetime thrillers I have seen. The acting was good, the movie kept a good pace, and the story was suspenseful, though the underlying premise was pretty unbelievable. In particular, I thought the acting of the acting of Meredith Monroe and Ari Cohen, the main characters were pretty convincing. I would definitely recommend this movie as a thriller worth watching. That being said, I always have a few pet peeves with Lifetime movies...Why do so many of these movies have the stereotypical best friend of the female protagonist- not married or divorced, has no life of their own and is fully engrossed in the female protagonist's life & issues, usually quirky in some way and less attractive than the female protagonist. I guess these quirky characters are supposed to add some color to a movie, but I just find them annoying. Why not just write a character you would find in the real world? - So the dirty husband/doctor faked the deaths of himself and Alison/Annie through a car accident. This means he must have killed two other people- male and female around their same ages and put them into the car and blew it up. Now theoretically, you might not be able to positively ID the bodies if they were blown up, but the article the detective found said they were burned beyond recognition. I'm not forensic expert, but don't they ID bodies using dental records in these cases? - Why in the world did the private detective not call the cops when he and the quirky friend discovered that the evil doctor took Alison/Annie away? Clearly they had ample evidence that he abducted her. Also, he already told his CSI buddy to inform the FBI. The excuse he gives is that he broke into the house- okay, but who knows that other than himself and the friend? Also, he was going to have to call the cops "sometime", once he found the guy. Wouldn't it have been better to do it before he left to find her, rather than confronting a murderous psycho on his own? But then it wouldn't have had that great thrilling Lifetime finish where the female protagonist gets her revenge on her evil oppressor.Okay, that's all of my peeves- pretty minor actually for a Lifetime movie :)

This movie bears an uncanny resemblance to the plot line of "See Jane Run" written by Joy Fielding in 1992. Link: http://www.amazon.com/See-Jane-Run-Joy-Fielding/dp/0380711524plot summary (via Amazon.com): Here, Jane finds herself in downtown Boston, her dress covered with blood, nearly $10,000 in her coat pocket, and absolutely no idea of who she is. She seeks help at Boston City Hospital, where she discovers that she is the wife of handsome Michael Whittaker, a renowned surgeon. The doctor seems to be the perfect husband, and as Jane learns the details of their ideal life together she is unable to understand her suspicions of him. However, as Jane's amnesia persists, it becomes clear that her model husband is threatening her sanity in order to conceal a sinister secret.And the made-for-TV movie in 1995: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114382/I thoroughly enjoyed the book, so if you liked this 'adaptation' you will probably like the book much more.

Okay, let me start off by saying the way this movie was made and drawn together made it a very highly addicting film to watch. At first, it may appear to be an overly happy movie, but it does take a dark turn towards the middle.Though my only compliant would be within the first five minutes my mother and I were sitting watching it and guessed the entire plot to it without even looking at the description of the movie. So yes, it is highly predictable, but the plot is so interesting and rare that you will love it.But don't expect any surprises.Though the ending is surely got its "lifetime movie" vibe to it, the rest is very good and suspenseful.I give it a 8/10 and that says a lot!