MANEATER on Lifetime Review

The two-part Lifetime original movie, MANEATER, starring Sarah Chalke, premieres on Saturday May 30, with part 2 airing on May 31.

When I first heard about the movie, I was really excited. Not only was it a Lifetime movie (and I usually enjoy those), but Scrubs‘ Sarah Chalke was starring in it. And so it was with great excitement that I sat down to watch Maneater.

Unfortunately, the movie did not live up to my expectations. I think my biggest issue is that I couldn’t find myself caring about any of the characters. Sarah Chalke’s character, Clarissa Alpert, is not very likable. She decides that she wants to get married and pursues a new handsome producer, who just moved into town, Aaron Mason (Philip Winchester). Now here is my problem, their whole relationship didn’t feel true to me. It was a fixed meeting and the relationship is not really developed in the movie to the point that we believe these two really love each other. Now I don’t want to give too many things away, but it just didn’t really work for me, and I usually eat those things up. I honestly got to the end of part 1 and hesitated on even watching part 2 and that can’t be a good sign. The good news is, I actually enjoyed part 2 better than part 1.

I’m not saying that there weren’t any good parts in the movie, like for example, Clarissa saying my new favorite line: “Stress is desserts spelled backwards.” (Could that be my new mantra?)
Plus, Clarissa goes on a really interesting journey in part 2, that makes her a lot more likable than she is in part 1.
And I also think that fans of Sarah Chalke will enjoy seeing her starring in something new.

Overall, definitely not my favorite Lifetime movie, but it does have some nice moments. As I mentioned previously, it was a little hard to care for most of the characters, which was very disappointing to me since I wanted to love the movie so much. But I do think that if you can get through part 1, part 2 of the movie will be a lot more entertaining and touching.

Maneater also stars Judy Greer, Paul Leyden, Gregory Harrison, Maria Conchita Alonso, Marla Sokoloff, Noureen Dewulf, Garcelle Beauvais-Nilon, Gary Grubbs, Eric Allan Kramer, Shalim Ortiz, and Greg Pitts.

Also, if there are any Torchwood fans out there, you might be interested to know that Naoko Mori has a short guest appearance in the movie. Speaking of which, I miss Tosh.

You can catch Maneater on Saturday May 30, and Sunday, May 31 2009, at 9pm on Lifetime.