After surviving a traumatic relationship, editor Julia (Dawson) has finally found happiness with dreamy micro-brewery owner David (Stults). So she uproots from San Francisco to suburban Southern California to start a new life with him and his daughter Lily (Rice). The problem is that David's ex Tessa (Heigl) is very much around, and is clearly threatened by Julia. Indeed, she begins a conniving plan to drive Julia round the bend while making her look like the nutcase. This includes setting up a violent encounter with Julia's ex (Kassianides), whose restraining order has just expired.

The echoes of classics like Fatal Attraction are obvious from the start, punched continually with ominous droning on the soundtrack every time Tessa appears. And Lily's hamster is looking nervous. The sense of dread increases when Tessa's imperious mother (Ladd) appears, humanising Tessa briefly by being the queen of all monstrous mothers. Meanwhile, the dopey David doesn't know whom to believe: the sexy woman he loves or the slinky mother of his child.

Performances are broadly expressive, making it clear who the audience should be rooting for. Heigl goes all out to get some sympathy as the woman scorned, although her psychopath credentials are never in doubt. That ironed-down hair and too-tight dresses are a dead giveaway. Dawson delivers a few moments of serious acting as a woman who is pushed right over the edge, but she'd be much more convincing if Julia made any sense at all.

It's simply impossible to believe that Julia and David are getting married, since they never speak about the most important events from their past while keeping new things unnecessarily secret from each other. But the script's much more pernicious assumption is that women much be at each others' throats all the time, simply can't get along, and can certainly never get over their former loves. If the entire movie wasn't so ludicrous, this might be deeply offensive. But we're too busy chortling at the corny excesses to worry about that.

themes, language, violence, sexuality

18.Apr.17