[Warning: General spoilers ahead.]
I’ve said for years that it’s often a fine line between a Hallmark movie and a Lifetime movie. Make the meet-cute and the too-good-to-be-true suitor slightly or not-so-slightly more menacing and BAM. That’s absolutely on display Saturday night with Lifetime’s latest ripped-from-the-headlines fare, A Doctor to Die For: The Sarah Harris Story.
Starring Hallmark favorite Luke Macfarlane (who’s back in the Countdown to Christmas rotation next month and who’s been down this road before in Amish Stud), the film is based on the true story of a vulnerable young woman preyed upon and eventually killed by her oral surgeon boss when he plies her with an endless quantity of stolen drugs, ostensibly to ease her crippling anxiety and depression.
It’s a very fast downfall that sweeps up Sarah (The Hunting Party’s Siobhan Williams) and her mother, Tina (My Life with the Walter Boys’ Janet Kidder) and sister, Rachel (Hallmarkie Jessica Sipos). Sarah meets Macfarlane’s James first as a new patient, who he soon makes a new hire, and then live-in girlfriend, rapidly gaining control of every aspect of her autonomy.
When Tina starts to see the red flags, James has an answer for everything, and by the time she threatens him with repercussions that actually register, it’s too late. Then it’s up to Rachel to piece together the clues and prove to Detective Mangano (Hallmarkie Paul McGillion) that her sister didn’t die of a garden variety overdose.
There are some plot holes in there about what made Sarah so vulnerable to his coercion and why nobody who’d worked with James for a while warned her to run far and fast as soon as it became clear they were dating. That’s a thread that’s never pulled here. There is, however, a nod given to the additionally unsettling fact that James knew who Sarah was before she ever walked into his clinic.
The film is written by Lifetime regular Barbara Marshall, based on Tina Harris’s story of the events, and directed by When Calls the Heart director Siobhan Devine. The performances are top notch across the board. Macfarlane nails the complete range of James’ narcissism, playing him as overly charismatic one minute and insidiously creepy the next, a texbook letch and emotional maniuplator who latches onto an entire family and then hollows them out.
Kidder is fantastic—I would fully expect to see her get a CSA or Leo nomination for this next year as Tina descends from hopeful to downright feral and then determined to see James locked up. Sipos hangs back a bit until the final acts of the film, when the POV shifts to Rachel and she stays on the case to bring James to justice. Give her a lead next, please and thank you.
Williams plays Sarah as a bit of a cipher in that aside from some text messages that surface later, we don’t go down the rabbit hole of her depression and anxiety, which makes sense when the story is ultimately from Tina’s perspective. But even without that origin story, Williams is solid as a young woman who begins bright eyed and full of promise and has it very quickly drained from her until she is a literal shell of herself. We actually watch her light go out.
Y’all know these types of movies are not typically my jam, but I will always support my Hallmarkies and Canadian talent, and in the post-strike world where gigs are even harder to come by, I’m happy when any and all of them get to continue working. This is an uneasy watch, as it should be, and they’re all bringing their A-game here.
A Doctor to Die For: The Sarah Harris Story premieres at 8 pm/7c Saturday, October 3rd, on Lifetime, repeating at midnight/11c and streaming the next day. Here’s a sneak peek.
Photos courtesy of Lifetime Television.
