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Lifetime takes inspiration from the Natalee Holloway. They craft a fictional thriller where the presumed victim of a murder case actually lives. This woman foils attempts to gain access to a fortune trust in her name. Presumed Dead In Paradise is a mixture of many elements which leads to the making of an average movie, but wonderful acting manages to save it. While some aspects of the story do seem predictable, the main villian’s cunning plan is brilliant. It is astonishing to witness how much effort the writers put in the movie in order for the villain character to come out without injury.Madison Ashland(Malese Jow) fits the stereotype of a spoiled rich kid perfectly. She has been expelled from three different schools and her parents are no help either. They both died a long time ago, leaving her with an abusive step mother who neglects her, ‘forcing’ her to attend school during the holidays. Madison’s character is highly angry at life given how she had to live it, choosing to aid other children in stealing tests by executing school Gordon Gecko style.”
What does her stepmother Patricia Ashland’s (Olivia d’Abo) surprise visit mean? Apparently, she would like to have a reunion with Madison by vacationing on St. Isabelle island, a place which Madison and her father frequently visited when she was a kid. To Madison, everything felt just great. Still, a fun vacation alone is not exactly what makes a Lifetime movie interesting. Fortunately for Madison, she had a run in with a creepy guy during her vacation and Blake came to her rescue. But Blake proves to be a lot less nice than she thought, as he drugs her, takes her out to sea, and submerges her under the guise of a surf lesson. Shortly after that, she passes out in the ocean and washes ashore on a deserted beach. As she walks to the hotel, she spots Patricia and Blake kissing, and hears them talking about their plan to kill her. Luckily, she manages to escape before they see her.
When Madison goes to the police, it is pointless as she has no way of proving her identity. Patricia comes in with a fake Madison, who in turn gets the real Madison arrested. Fortunately, the utterly clueless police allow her to use the restroom by herself. Madison goes on to escape. The only one able to help Madison is her old friend, whom she tracks down by means of narrative convenience. What are they to do, however, with everything having been stacked so heavily against them?
Parts of Presumed Dead in Paradise have somehow managed to be better than I expected. Patricia sets everything up so nicely that there are numerous backup plans for Madison’s plans, even when she manages to embarrassingly screw up by not dying and constantly breaking out. That fake Madison scene was brilliant, and had a great Twilight Zone vibe. They label Madison as an incredibly obsessed stalker, which makes her attempt to prove that she is the real Madison more insane than she already is. Madison is cut off from all social media due to having her password changed, hunted by Blake, and having no ID except for her fake one, and no other means of identification.
To begin with, Madison lacks friends from long-term schooling. Her constant shuffling around from prep school to prep school leaves her without anyone to call for help in an emergency. It also suggests that with all of the acting out, Patricia helped Madison get sent from school to school which would eventually help isolate her for the coup of her life.
Long term planning always has its repercussions, which eventually catches up with Patricia. She’s played the long game for so long that it is completely effortless for Madison to let Blake know, he is most likely the next target on her list. This makes it easy for Olivia d’Abo, who portrays Patricia, to bring the character to life. A woman who, like d’Abo’s character, would not think twice about meticulously planning and executing such a scheme to eliminate one of her foes (let’s ignore how her character is written off the show!) There are even some loose threads suggesting she is the mastermind behind the death of her husband.
Patricia does have her hands full with her cunning plan. In addition to it, Madison is not working together, Blake is unable to eliminate her, and the Taylor Matthews continues to scream that the real Madison is going to kill her. Beyond this, it does not help that she does not know what it is in the safety deposit box that is reserved for Madison. Patricia sets the plan into action because of her greed but then she has to work on the fly and ultimately, it leads to some loose threads here and there which risk everything getting thrown off course.
Malese Jow portrays a good Madison, a spoiled kid with an absent father who spends her time moping around the house. All she does is reminisce about her father and the strong connection that they shared. She makes sure Madison doesn’t get too obnoxious, allowing you to empathize with a character who is certainly given more than the average person, despite her problematic existence. When her world comes crashing down, her years of rebellious behavior helps her steal break into a few hotel rooms and figure out where valuables would be concealed. Gavin Houston is the somewhat tormented Blake, who understands that he has work to do but is also painfully aware of what awaits his future. Luis Omar O’Farrill doesn’t have enough scenes as Andres, Madison’s friend from the younger years, because he only shows up somewhere the second half of the movie. He’s had his own issues too considering that his parents drowned during the hurricane and he was raised in the street by some radical group that fell out of favor with the government.
This is a more common story of poverty that should never be that common. Therefore, he cannot simply walk into a police station to corroborate Madison’s story. Alix Elizabeth Gitter is entertaining as Taylor the Fake, who is a computer hacking specialist and is always anxious that Madison will come crashing in and catch her. It is clear that she is not accustomed to plans going even a little bit awry.
Even though it earns big points for the performances offered, Presumed Dead in Paradise is not something that stands out and cannot be missed. Nevertheless, it is still decent enough to watch when it releases on Lifetime or similar channels. People who enjoy fake web pages made for use in films will love Gi-Mail, Faces and Friends, or a search engine named Zowie. Fans of films where a character, whom everyone knows is somehow going to tie everything together in the end, wears a prominent key on her necklace the whole movie will also be pleased. Mary Lambert, a Lifetime women director, has also made this movie and does a few interesting things with the music and the scenes in the prep school. If you happen to be an extremely picky viewer who only enjoys it when Lifetime goes totally bonkers, then this paradise has been paved and made into a parking lot.
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