Engaged to Be Murdered 2023 * * Stars

BETROTHAL 

2023's Engaged to Be Murdered is a Lifetime flick that's the sloppiest of whodunits. I mean gee whiz! Someone has to be accused of attempted murder. Someone has to be accused of stealing money from their employer. Someone has to be accused of thwarting a future wedding. Finally, someone has to be accused of undermining everything, you know the whole, unlawful kit and caboodle. Yup, even Perry Mason would have his hands full here. 

Taking place in Seattle, WA (or in and around the area) and placing enough McGuffins to power a small country, Engaged to Be Murdered is about a son (Jack Finley played by Madison Smith) who brings home his sudden fiance (Erin Boyes as Olivia) to the disapproval of his rich mommy (Sarah-Jane Redmond as Amanda Finley). 

That's just the outline because we the viewer also have to worry about other stuff, like the motivations of Jack's ex-girlfriend, Jack's ex-girlfriend's mom (her and Amanda are buds), Jack's uncle boss (who thinks Olivia might be a corporate spy), some goon trying to kill Olivia, and Olivia's loser brother (who just happened to pop in the picture). Whew, poor Olivia! All she wanted to do was get married to oily bohunk. 

Watching "Engaged" is not necessarily an exhaustive experience, it's more of an eye-rolling one because everybody seems to be trying hard to reinvent the strife that is the Lifetime network wheel. It's like the director (Keegan Connor Tracy) is juggling a bunch of pins but dropping them repeatedly because she never learned to um, juggle effectively. 

Sure the actors do their best to sell the scenes and sure, you eventually want to know the outcome after 90 minutes (that's baseline for the good old wine club). But there's this thing in cinema called continuity errors and Engaged to Be Murdered has enough but doesn't know when to relinquish them. Broken rules of "engagement". 

Written by Jesse Burleson