A woman has a final fling prior to her marriage. But the man with whom she has spent the night turns out to be the lover out of hell. "Broken Vows" tells the story of a stalker who turns what appears to be a perfect wedding into a nightmare.
The film has all of the elements of a formula film on the Lifetime cable network. Jaime Alexender is perfectly cast as Tara, the protagonist who recognizes that she has made a "mistake" on the morning after sleeping with a New Orleans bartender, Patrick Flynn. Wes Bentley is outstanding as the psycho who begins stalking Tara, her fiancé Michael, and her family members. Cam Gigandet is solid as the trusting fiancé radiating a hangdog look deriving from the guilt of having already broken his own vow with a brief, adulterous liaison.
There is a build-up to the wedding day of Tara and Michael with extremely revealing moments when both Tara and Michael are aware of the strange behavior of Patrick, yet refuse to communicate with each other. In withholding what they know, Patrick is provided with the opportunity to catch them off-guard and to disrupt their lives beyond belief.
The film was successful in developing what could have been stereotypes into fairly well developed characters. The well-intentioned friend Deb, the ineffective private eye (Clay), and the naive sister (Annie) were all well-conceived and well-performed roles.
The directing was well above the standards of an average Grade "B" film with interesting camera angles and overhead shots. The costume design was only limited in repeating much too often the black dress worn by Tara. There could have been a greater variety of costuming, as it was clear that Tara and her family were affluent member of the Eastern intelligentsia.
Still, as a low-budget, direct-to-viewer film product, "Broken Vows" is an extremely entertaining and not-to-be-missed film bargain from your local Redbox machine!!!
The film has all of the elements of a formula film on the Lifetime cable network. Jaime Alexender is perfectly cast as Tara, the protagonist who recognizes that she has made a "mistake" on the morning after sleeping with a New Orleans bartender, Patrick Flynn. Wes Bentley is outstanding as the psycho who begins stalking Tara, her fiancé Michael, and her family members. Cam Gigandet is solid as the trusting fiancé radiating a hangdog look deriving from the guilt of having already broken his own vow with a brief, adulterous liaison.
There is a build-up to the wedding day of Tara and Michael with extremely revealing moments when both Tara and Michael are aware of the strange behavior of Patrick, yet refuse to communicate with each other. In withholding what they know, Patrick is provided with the opportunity to catch them off-guard and to disrupt their lives beyond belief.
The film was successful in developing what could have been stereotypes into fairly well developed characters. The well-intentioned friend Deb, the ineffective private eye (Clay), and the naive sister (Annie) were all well-conceived and well-performed roles.
The directing was well above the standards of an average Grade "B" film with interesting camera angles and overhead shots. The costume design was only limited in repeating much too often the black dress worn by Tara. There could have been a greater variety of costuming, as it was clear that Tara and her family were affluent member of the Eastern intelligentsia.
Still, as a low-budget, direct-to-viewer film product, "Broken Vows" is an extremely entertaining and not-to-be-missed film bargain from your local Redbox machine!!!