‘Sister with a Secret’ review: Taylor Foster gives riveting performance as Tara in Lifetime's crime-thriller
Lifetime is loved by the viewers for its diverse palette of powerful and captivating stories globally. The much-awaited drama thriller film ‘Sister with a Secret’ has premiered today. If audiences love watching a well-made film that has a blend of family bonding, drama, love angle, a psychotic ex, a caring best friend, and an over-obsessive father who tries killing his entire family then this one is surely unmissable. The movie ‘Sister with a Secret’ doesn’t waste any time in capturing the audience’s attention right from the first scene itself.
Directed by Ben Myerson, the film has an interesting start featuring a mother (Kelly Sullivan) and her two daughters Tara (Taylor Foster) and Jessica (Grace Narducci). They all are living together as one tight-knitted family. Kelly's eldest one, Tara has some secrets which aren’t known by her family at all. Kelly’s ex-husband Tom (Mark Famiglietti) is seen as the normal father figure in starting but he proves how looks can be deceptive. Tara is seen going to college in Rossmore and they all start packing her things for the same. On the day before she’s about to go, her mother insists that Tara go to dinner with Tom, and then she agrees but later she doesn’t go and instead attends a party with her best friend Alex (Sam Bixby). Tara had been in a secret relationship with her ex-boyfriend Ryan (Austin Fryberger) and she breaks up with him before going to college. Here Ryan feels fury and anger on seeing Tara with Alex.
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Then Tara feels that someone’s following her at the party and immediately starts going back home but she doesn’t reach home in time. She gets kidnapped by a mysterious person and is kept hostage in a dingy room inside a mansion-type home. She gets a bit angry at being helpless in freeing herself. On the flip side, Tara’s mother Kelly, and sister Jessica are worried about knowing that Tara’s been kidnapped. They try to figure out who could be behind this. Their suspicion goes on Tara’s ex-boyfriend Ryan and best friend Alex because the mastermind Tom (Mark Famiglietti) has created situations that safeguards him and tried pinning it down on both of them who ultimately get murdered by him.
Definitely the mystery and suspicion behind who can be the person behind Tara’s disappearance and kidnapping only widens up more when Tara’s mother, sister, and father get to know that Alex never went to Chicago in the first place and also that Tara’s ex-boyfriend Ryan has erased his dating profile which directly makes them believe that kidnapper could either be Alex or Ryan. But the real question here is why is the person doing all this and what would he gain from it. In the end, there’s a total shocking reveal that it had been Tom behind all of this right from the start which shocks Kelly and her younger one Jessica. Tom said that he did kidnap Tara to safeguard her and Kelly utters that this is psychotic. Later he tries killing Kelly and Tara but is unable to do so because Tara picks up a spade and kills him.
Taylor Foster as Tara, Mark Famiglietti as Tom, and Kelly Sullivan as mother have given extraordinary performances in the film.
Special mention here to the fact that rising star Taylor Foster has proven her mettle as an actress with her multi-layered performance as Tara in this film. She effortlessly switched between feigning herself as innocent and pious and also having secrets which helped her family in locating her in the end. She has given a fine performance as a young girl who can be normal and innocent when she wants to be and also a girl who has her own set of dark secrets that even her family didn’t get any whiff off. This film here is not really meant for the faint-hearted. It’s a well-made film filled with a lot of mystery and suspense that constantly kept viewers at the edge of their seats. Meanwhile, Mark Famiglietti as Tom and Kelly Sullivan as mother have given fabulous performances in the film. Kudos to Isak Borg and Dena Hysell-Cornejo for creating a gritty and tight intriguing storyline that is definite to keep viewers on edge of their seats throughout.
Overall ‘Sister with a Secret’ is a dark and suspenseful film that has the right mix of drama, thriller, and emotional backdrop of the main protagonist alongside the chilling element of kidnapping, murder, lying, truth, and sick psychotic behavior as well.
