Bullet Points: A Mother’s Crime
Every once in awhile I like to sit around and watch a good movie marathon on television. TV movie marathons remove the occasionally difficult question of what to watch. Sometimes I am lucky and find James Bond, Death Wish or American Ninja marathons. Sometimes I get suckered into Lifetime movies like when I started watching a Mama Drama marathon recently and I could not have been happier because I never would have seen the 2017 movie, A Mother’s Crime. It is your turn to be happy as I just so happen to have some Bullet Points for the thriller, A Mother’s Crime.
- Mommie Dearest – A Mother’s Crime opens with distraught mother Danielle (Jennifer Gabrielle) struggling with a verbally abusive husband who thinks she is a cheater. Danielle does what all good female Lifetime movie characters should do and stabs her no good husband in the back. And yes, Danielle just committed a mother’s crime! Danielle takes her baby Cali and hightails it out of the scene of the crime. Danielle makes her way to her well to do but estranged sister Nikki (April Bowlby, whom you might recognize from the DC Universe show Doom Patrol).
- Sister, Sister – Nikki is a single parent raising ten year old Becky when Danielle comes by looking for money in order to go on the run with her boyfriend Gunnar (I guess that dead husband had a reason to be suspicious about Danielle). Instead of trying to be a good sister, Danielle steals the money from Nikki and sneaks out in the middle of the night and she would have gotten away with it if it wasn’t for her pesky daughter Cali. The baby gets sick on the drive out of town and Danielle is forced to go to the hospital. When Danielle tells Gunnar about the baby he wants nothing to do with the little kid and tells her that it is either Gunnar or Cali. So you guessed it, Danielle decides to leave Cali at the hospital and would have gotten away with it if it wasn’t for three of the ugliest, fattest and hairiest security guards chasing Danielle down after she is spotted as the murderer. As a surprise to know one, Danielle gets prison and Nikki legally adopts Cali.
- The Seven Year Itch – A Mother’s Crime jumps seven years with Nikki now married to Jacob, Becky is only 17 and Cali is 7. Creepy stuff starts happening to Nikki and her family such as a someone taking photos of the family during a party and breaking into their house. Coincidentally, or maybe not, Danielle has been released and is living in a halfway house very near to Nikki because she wants to get her daughter back. In one of the most unbelievable parts of A Mother’s Crime, Gunnar has waited for Cali and now all of a sudden he too wants Cali in his life. The character of Gunnar could have only be written for a Lifetime movie.
- Grand Theft Ma – It turns out that the creepy man who has been following Nikki and her family was hired by Cali’s grandmother and mother of the man Danielle killed. The grandmother wants to steal Cali from Nikki because she doesn’t like how Nikki has been seen with Danielle. Did I mention that the grandmother has macular degeneration which means she is going blind, is basically old as dirt, and hired a man to illegally break into Nikki’s house? Well the above are all true and this grandmother thinks that she can provide the best home for Cali. Honestly, Cali must be shitting gold for all these undeserving potential parental figures to want a piece of her.
- Bad Mother F**cker – Danielle gets crazier and wilder in her attempt to get Cali back. Even Gunnar starts to think Danielle is going too far. In a ballsy (and ironic) movie, Danielle decides to rob a convenience store at gunpoint, with someone named Gunnar being unaware that a gun would be involved, and causing Gunnar’s mug to be on the security camera. Blackmail, and Gunnar’s balls, are now in Danielle’s back pocket. Danielle also manipulates the kind hearted Becky, who has naturally become jealous of Cali due to every single person wanting a piece of (the gold shittting?) Cali. A Mother’s Crime comes to ahead with the sisters Nikki and Danielle going head to head.
If you think the climax makes any more sense than the rest of A Mother’s Crime you’d be what I like to call a fool. I will let you know that it involves a knife, a gun and a chick fight and I will also let you know that I wouldn’t have it any other way. Lifetime movies are not supposed to be realistic and probably aren’t even meant to be intended for me and most of the demographic who enjoys Bulletproofaction.com. Sometimes you just need a movie marathon to get sucked into and you can do a lot worse than the surprisingly thrilling and well acted, but equally outrageous, A Mother’s Crime. Bullet Points can end a lot worse like if they don’t have Bonus Bullet Points, but don’t worry your pretty little heart ‘cause here they are.
- Name Game – Cali got her name because when she was born it has hot outside, or caliente if you will. I never said the writing in Lifetime movies was good.
- Best Out of Context Quote – “Do you got the butt?”
- Pieces of April – April Bowlby is a fine actor whom you seek out more of, but if you like her in familiar movies and television shows, check out The Wrong Daughter, Mom, and How I Met Your Mother.
- D-d-d-directed By – A Mother’s Crime was directed by Fahad Mann, whom I always remember for directing Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace and the pilot episode of Max Headroom.
