Ties That Bind (TV Movie 2006) Poster

(2006 TV Movie)

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6/10
From Dream House to Nightmare
lavatch20 November 2020
Warning: Spoilers
Dr. David (Dave) Geiger and his wife Megan are just starting their respective careers as a doctor and a lawyer, and they have found what they believe is their dream house. The only problem is that it is slightly beyond their price range, as each has substantial loans from medical and law schools. But the property has a guest house which they plan to rent. The only problem is that their tenant is a monster.

Miss Courtney Walker Allison is a nurse with a sophisticated sense of psychology. In the lives of Dave and Megan, Courtney will be a genuine sadist, tormenting them as a tenant from hell.

Courtney instantly drives a wedge into the marriage of the Geigers, then begins to plot the demise of the couple. She is such a smooth operator that not much stands in her way. She was especially devious in using her position as a nurse in the hospital where Dave worked to make both his personal and professional life miserable.

While the performances were first-rate, the filmmakers created a real downer. There was no levity to the dialogue or situations, only a deep plunge into the vortex of pain for Dave and Megan Geiger.

There were also casualties along the way when Courtney murdered a patient at the hospital. She also kills the nosy neighbor, Mrs. Vega, as well as Megan's best friend, Keira Green. As a specialist in domestic violence, Keira had investigated Courtney and started to unearth the secrets of her past. She paid the ultimate price by personally visiting Courtney and confronting her.

Courtney's father was a philandering doctor, who cheated on his wife with a nurse. As a result, young Courtney murdered both her father and his paramour, then framed her mother for the crime. The film was far too unpleasant, and it stretched credibility to believe that Courtney could possibly conclude that "doctors are all the same" as her motivation for squandering her own life, as well as taking the lives of others.
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3/10
Another Lifetime "original"
caa82112 June 2007
Let's see. How many points can we give this presentation for originality?

1. Lifetime flick. 2. Lead actress from Canada (probably many of the support cast, too). 3. Filmed in Canada. 4. Nefarious female tenant/neighbor up to no good, and intent in causing havoc to her neighbors/landlords. Neighbor has designs on lead actress' husband. 5. The villainess has a dark past, missed by all until late in the flick. 6. Lead actor/husband (object of nefarious neighbor), while presented as an educated, competent professional, is a total clueless dolt. 7. Huge knife (larger than used by Capt. Ahab when whaling) wielded towards the end.

I think somewhere there is a little man in a dungeon office, with a laptop, pre-programmed with the above parameters: he simply fills-out the "form" for a new ensemble of actors, with the story's characters' names, professions, and fictional locales --- sends it to Vancouver, and the script for the next Lifetime flick is ready to go (to be filmed in Canada - probably Vancouver - regardless of the movie's purported locale).

However, these films do provide a benefit for all of us to gauge our mental health. Should anybody ever watch one and begin to feel empathy for these repetitive, cardboard characters - much less ever begin to believe that the events portrayed bear any resemblance to reality --- then some psychiatric counseling should be sought, before all sense of reality is lost.
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7/10
The ties that come untied
krorie1 May 2006
Not bad for a TV thriller involving a fairly predictable story yet executed with skill by TV director Terry Ingram and a competent cast headed by Nicole de Boer and Brian Krause. Some parts of the story are incredulous but if the viewer keeps an open mind, most of the plot works.

To get some extra spending money, a professional couple lease out the guest house on their newly purchased property. Leasing the guest house includes the sharing of the swimming pool and hot tub. The wife is more sold on the accepted applicant than the husband. One reason the husband has concerns results from the lessee being an ER nurse at the same hospital where the husband is a surgeon. Added to the reservations is the obvious beauty and seductiveness of the lessee. Problems with the new tenant escalate to the point of eviction. The new tenant, however, is determined to make her stay more permanent even if it means violence. A more thorough check on the tenant's background leads to more suspicion which culminates in a showdown.

Though the viewer has seen it all before, the script by newcomer Andy Callahan is well written and the direction is fast-paced, making for an entertaining made-for-TV film. But I am still unsure about the title and how it relates directly to the story.
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9/10
Alfred Hitchcock would be proud.
Eric_M_Blake8 December 2011
Warning: Spoilers
No, I'm not being facetious. This film has an excellent structure, and great characterization--it is a character drama, where the suspense and the thrills come from motivations, wants, and needs.

The beautiful Nicole deBoer is at the top of her game, here. As anyone who's seen "The Dead Zone" and the last season of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" knows, Miss deBoer is at her best when the storyline demands emotional intensity from her character. She always delivers the goods, there--and this film is no exception. Here, she plays a young, devoted wife who refuses to accept that her new friend--and tenant--is as suspicious, and shameless, as her husband eventually warns. Her clash with him over this is dramatic--and when she discovers the tenant's shamelessness for herself, the righteous fury in her eyes is wonderfully chill-inducing.

(By the way...my reference to Hitchcock in the title isn't coincidence: look at the sequence with Nicole in the shower...it seems eerily reminiscent of the legendary sequence from "Psycho"...sans the slashing, of course.)

The male lead is a good actor, who holds his own against Miss deBoer's talent well enough. The other female lead is also solid in her role as a (seemingly) nervous, childlike tenant...whom one slowly gets the idea, along with the husband, is far less innocent than she seems--actively channeling her femininity and physical features to visually seduce him.

The darker side of her nature is revealed in time--again, in a step-by-step "revealing of information" manner to please Hitchcock himself--when her antics fail to cause lasting damage in the couple's relationship. Her watching of the couple making out in their room (from the window of her place) is eerie. The husband's non-verbal confrontation of her later on, when she reclines in the hot-tub, is dramatically directed--the exchange is with the eye contact of the two actors, nothing more. And of course, her taped sequence with the husband secured to the bed is chilling--and the confrontation between Miss deBoer and her--and the aftermath--is filled with shock and suspense.

The climax is similarly dramatic. Perhaps the only real complaint I have with this otherwise excellent film is that it ends too soon after the climax is resolved. I would have liked a scene between the couple, as they reminisce on how the events have affected their relationship.

A possible minor second problem is that...well, to be honest, I didn't find the tenant as "hot" and "tempting" as she's apparently supposed to be (although, that may have been due to my strong admiration for Nicole deBoer....). Still, it is an excellent film overall, which I highly recommend.
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So-so movie for LMN TV
guilfisher-16 January 2007
Warning: Spoilers
Yet another female movie on LMN making the male species stupid. Yet this directed and written by two of the male species; Terry Ingram and Andy Callahan. Shame on you.

First off, the femme fa-tale, Sonya Saloma, has to be the worst temptress ever. With a mouth like a horse, a body to be desired and looking old enough to be the mother of our hero, was totally miscast and was terrible as well as obvious in this trashy film. I couldn't stand watching her. Spread out like a whore, who would even be interested. Our unsuspecting couple played by Brian Krause and Nicole de Boer, certainly didn't get the message. Until much damage was done. I cannot believe that no one caught on to this drivel.

Did anyone ever hear of changing the locks? And leaving your house keys in an open mailbox? Smart Robinne. And the lawyer girlfriend slowly walking around the guest cottage without any thought of the shady lady being around after telling her friend she was a nut case. Also smart. And our hero being forced to kiss the witch after telling all how much he didn't trust her? Yet he seemed very anxious to do so. Another no control male species?

This movie annoyed the heck out of me because of all the obvious advances made by the horsey femme fa-tale and the fact that no one saw her obvious moves. Are people that dead? Best part of the film was the end. I did like the house, though, who ever loaned it out for the film.

Oh, and all the other victims deserved what they got out of their own stupidity in falling for such a phony witch. I give this film a 0 rating because of bad writing, directing and acting. You can't get worse than this, yet LMN hits you with many losers

Upon a second viewing I still stand by my initial criticism. Saloma is still terrible to look at. Her skinny flat chested body never looked worse then when she was in a bathing suit. Who approved that. You could see her ribs and shoulder blades sticking through. Ugly. Her long bleached hair looked like a horse's ass. And her frog mouth was ugly, ugly. Then the bimbo housewife leaving her keys in the open knowing the witch is next door? Come on. And the lawyer calling her down as she stands in front of her with a knife? Come on. Who wrote this dribble? Who cast it? I now give it a minus 10. Saloma deserved a more painful and drawn out death that she laid on the others. Not satisfying to this viewer.
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