Her Best Friend's Husband (2002) Review

Just hearing this is a Lifetime movie will give you a pretty good idea of what type of drama this should entail!

Plot
Jane's visiting Seattle which seems to be her first break in awhile from her busy attorney career. She lost her husband, but we're not sure how long ago. She's flying to Seattle as a surprise for her friend Mandy's bday party. At the party, we see glimpses of Mandy being upset or Weird around her husband. Finally she tells Jane that everything is wrong in her life right now... "it's just one giant mistake". Jane can't stand seeing her best friend hurting, so she tries to help. With lifetime movies you can always skip the first 30-40 minutes because you know what's gonna happen! Let's just say that as Jane tries to help save Mandy and Will's marriage, she starts to feel sorry for Will ...and then starts to feel other things for Will. Can she save this marriage? or will it be destroyed completely? It really makes you wonder who your friends are!

Actors
Cheryl Ladd .... Jane Thornton. Cheryl can most recently be seen on episodes of Las Vegas, but apparently back before I was born she was on Charlie's Angels, so I assume a lot of you probably know who she is.

Bess Armstrong .... Mandy Roberts is a desperate housewife. She's just not happy but at the start we are really clueless as to why. It seems to be just about her and her husband growing apart, and not about major issues. .

William R. Moses .... Will Roberts. William has a very long list of credits including multiple "Jane Doe" and "Perry Mason" movies - none of which I've ever seen or really even heard of. Will is an architect who really wants to know what's wrong with his wife lately. It's no secret to him that something is wrong with her and he is starting to get ticked off - but he has no idea how extreme Mandy's issues are.

My Random Thoughts
The premise of this movie is actually pretty realistic. I mean if you work day in and day out trying to repair a friend's relationship, you are bound to start listing off all the "good stuff" about your friend's spouse, and you might even start to be attracted. I know the opposite is true also because the opposite has happened to me - We spent so much time telling our friend the bad in her boyfriend that we seriously couldn't stand him when she decided to stick with him. Whether we are talking about the good or the bad, When you are busy trying to convince your friends - you will likely convince yourself first! However where the realism goes away for me is when Jane actually acts on her feelings. I know people do cheat in real life, but I will always have a hard time understand it! How can you hurt your friend like that?

One thing that makes sense is that Jane just lost her husband so she really can't understand why her friend would want to destroy her "perfect" life and loving marriage. Will is a real nice guy, and as Jane watches him get hurt by the woman he loved she starts to side with him more and more. How could Mandy hurt such a wonderful guy out of nowhere like this? Who's side will she take - take a lucky guess!

Although the category was lifetime, it started slightly better than a regular lifetime movie. The music they was subtle and just the right amount. I'm not saying this is "theater" quality because it is far from it. The plot is pretty predictable and not something you'd want to end up paying money for. I had to give this only 4 stars because although it had some good qualities, I just wasn't drawn in and kept interested as much as I could have been. Instead I found myself playing on the computer as I watched - just waiting for what I already knew was going to happen to actually happen.

The movie isn't so much about "her best friend's husband" as it is about two lonely and depressed people who are longing for any sort of connection. It starts out about the whole best friend thing but eventually it turns into a story between Will and Jane.... this is another reason for the four stars - there wasn't nearly as much drama as the title implied!!!! The fact is from 8 to 9:25 there is virtually no out of the ordinary drama. Then there was some, but nothing big deal.

Conclusion
This story doesn't really fit with the title of the movie. I assumed there would be some kind of love triangle or jealous fights or whatever. Although there were a few dramatic things near the end, there wasn't much of it throughout the film. The "secret" romance between Will and Jane was stupid because there really was no reason for it to be secret - after all they were already planning a divorce! How could the story have been better? Well they could have had Will and Mandy working things out while Jane started to be attracted to him... That is what I expected, that is not what I got! Instead it was pretty much a done deal that they were getting divorced. So you might want to catch this on TV but don't go out of your way to buy it! Enjoy!!