Lifetime Review: 'The Wife He Met Online'

Like many things in life, marriage can often fail if it's rushed into. Sadly, it seems Lifetime protagonists have not quite learned that it's best to wait to make sure the person you're prepared to walk down the aisle with and take vows of eternal love for isn't a psychopath, serial killer, child predator, or some hybrid of those three (damn, what a movie that would make....) So often times, if a Lifetime movie starts with two people getting married, one of them is a psychopath.

In this case, that one would be Georgia Marisette (Sydney Penny). She's on the verge of getting married to handsome single father Bryant Meyers (All My Children alumni Cameron Mathison) after carrying on a months-long long-distance relationship, via an online dating website and occasional visits. Georgia is head over heels, and Bryant thinks Georgia's unlike any woman he's ever met.

But before Georgia even goes down the aisle, we get to see that she's not all right up in the old noggin. She sees a vision of her deceased mother (played with perfect cruelty by Barbara Niven) chastising her for taking so long to find a husband, followed by flashbacks of Georgia with her ex-boyfriend Geoffrey Westlin (Michael Boisvert), accusing him of infidelity and setting his bed on fire. And after the wedding, Georgia has a breakdown in the ladies' room after seeing Bryant talking with his colleague Zenya (Krista Bridges).

Yeah, something should tell you that Georgia's not in the best mental health. And as her jealousy comes to a boil, Bryant will find his entire life threatened by the woman he fell in love with....

In most "Tainted Love" Lifetime movies, the film is carried almost entirely by its' crazed villain/villainess, and if The Wife He Met Online were such a case, Sydney Penny would've been more than capable of carrying this movie on Georgia's deluded, psychotic shoulders. As played by Penny, Georgia is a great mix of melodramatic psychosis and sympathetic tragedy. From what brief glimpses we get into Georgia's past, her upbringing left her starved for love and convinced that all men were deceitful, callous liars. While it does nothing to make her actions any less horrific, it's always nice for Lifetime to add dimension to their characters.

But like I said, this movie isn't carried by Sydney Penny alone. Cameron Mathison has a knack of playing likable yet compelling Nice Guy characters, and Bryant Meyers. But refreshingly, the movie doesn't make Bryant completely oblivious to Georgia's instability. Throughout the film, he frequently confronts Georgia about being jealous and possessive over him, and ultimately never allows for Georgia's issues to control his life. By the time the climax comes, and Bryant is confronting Georgia head on, you're rooting for him and want to see him succeed in the end. SPOILER ALERT: And in a nice dose of realism from Lifetime, even the film's optimistic ending with Bryant surviving the knife wound he got courtesy of Georgia comes with a reminder that Georgia's actions left Bryant with emotional damage that will take a while to heal--especially in regards to his love life.

The supporting cast does a fairly decent job, with Cynthia Preston, who has played her share of insane villainesses for Lifetime, giving a likable and fairly fleshed out performance as Bryant's concerned ex-wife. The film also gives us a surprise appearance from regular Lifetime actress Sophie Gendron, appearing as Georgia's former co-worker Penny. Additionally, Emily Burley gives a surprisingly compelling performance as Bryant's young daughter Megan, happily avoiding going down the beaten path of being an annoying or overly cloying and simply being a good kid who thankfully doesn't get too pulled into her stepmother's schemes.

For the most part, The Wife He Met Online is a very solid film. What could've easily been a bland, by-the-book Lifetime thriller was made into something great by the right cast of people coming together and putting all their effort into making something great. This certainly stands up as a worthy successor to The Boy She Met Online, as well as standing well as a stand alone thriller.

Score: 9 out of 10 burning beds.