Love You To Death (2019) Reviews

• This is soooo good!

  rightisright2019-01-29

  You knew going in that this had to be something special for the great Marcia Gay Harden to agree to do a Lifetime movie. And it is! Marcia Gay Harden is spectacular playing a mother suffering from Munchhausen By Proxy. Emily Skeggs is equally awesome playing her daughter Esme. Without giving too much away, this movie does an incredible job of showing the physical and emotional devestation this syndrome can cause. The writer and director have done a great job coming close to the edge of overplaying, but keeping it real enough that by the end, the viewer is emotionally exhausted. This movie is inspired by the real case of Dee Dee Blanchard and her daughter.

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• Not as good as I hoped

  hippiexpunk2019-03-22

  If you really want to know about this story go check out the Hulu series "The Act", although is movie is watchable I wouldn't recommend it. Sorry!

• Anyone Else Notice...

  rachelstuartwhite2019-02-08

  There is more music and artistic scenes than dialogue. That should probably give you a clue to not expect a riveting experience from the actors and actresses. Yes, it's based in a true story, but man, did they tone the real problem down when they focused a ton on the daughter and her boyfriend's "beautiful love scenes" first in a convention with a wig in a wheelchair, to a wig in a bed, and to a pool when the wig finally comes off. Ok, we get the symbolism of losing the wig with him. But um, I think he knew she wasn't faking when she walked and was banging him in bed and she lost her innocence when she became honest to someone other than her mother. Really disappointed in this. Did enjoy all the piano music in it though, especially considering I switched to reading a book during this disaster, it really provided nice quite background music.

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• Deadly love called Munchausen

  director-1392019-02-03

  This TV docudrama based on the lives of Dee Dee and Gypsy Blanchard was at times very difficult to watch. The abuse from the mother, Camille (Marcia Gay Harden), was frightening. She was very scary and relentlessly in control. And Harden was amazing as always. Emily Skeggs (Esme) did the best she could with what she had and Tate Donovan was wasted, which was too bad. What was missing in this movie was some kind of revelation as to why people suffer from Munchhausen Syndrome. It only shows the effect on Esme. Having a look inside the character of Camille might have made this a little more interesting. While definitely not a major motion picture, it was entertaining.

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• Great film -- and not just by Lifetime standards

  mgconlan-12019-01-28

  "Love You to Death" is a profound and powerfully disturbing movie about the relationship between Esmé Stoller (Emily Skaggs) and her mom Camile (Marcia Gay Harden, a far more illustrious "name" than we're used to seeing on Lifetime). Esmé is in a wheelchair, she's bald (there's a fascinatingly cruel scene in which we see her mom shaving her head) and she's been told she has had bone cancer since she was 4. Writer Anthony Jaswinski and director Alex Kalymnikos tell this story from both mother's and daughter's point of view, and the result is a powerful, chilling fable about just how far certain people will go to feel "loved" and "needed." I'm rating it nine stars instead of 10 because the switch from Camile's to Esmé's point of view about a third of the way through is awkward and writer Jaswinski could have had an even deeper and more profound movie if he'd used the "Citizen Kane" narratage technique and told the Stollers' story from the various points of view of the people involved in it. But that doesn't take away from what he, Kalymnikos and their stars (not only Harden and Skaggs but Brennan Keel Cook as Esmé's boyfriend Scott) achieved with a film that's excellent by any standards and especially amazing coming from Lifetime.

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