The Stepsister (1997)

Good start, but then it gets ruined

Fantastic!

Better Late Then Never

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

A modern day Cinderella tale. In this one, a Ph.D. candidate loses her mother, a pediatrician, in what is thought of as a tragic accident. Soon, her father, also a physician, meets a woman (Linda Evans) with an interesting daughter. They marry and the fun begins.Evans and her daughter Melinda are thieves. The twist comes when Evans actually falls in love with the doctor and tells her daughter that she is calling off their plans. When the husband is killed by Evans' daughter, mother wants to send her away but this brat has other plans-killing her mother and blaming the Ph.D candidate!The plot twists here are excellent. The movie moves at a fast pace and is a joy to watch on the screen. The psychological trapping at the end is a delight for the viewer as well.

This movie is brutal,disturbing, and certain scenes almost completely unwatchable. As television movies go, many are bad and most are not as good as motion pictures but this was a movie that really left a bad taste in my mouth. I hope it wasn't based on a true story, though I do not remember seeing that it was(they usually say). If it wasn't-what was the point of the movie? It was so unnecessarily brutal and drainingly hard to watch to the point where you're exhausted by the end of the movie.While the ending was good "payback" the villainess in this, was so repulsive, nothing in the world could have been enough. At least, in many movies like this, there's some intrigue to go along with the bitterness but in this I saw nothing. The villainess was so disgusting it gave you a headache just to watch her for more then five minutes(for some reason I did watch the whole thing) and by the end your so thankful the movie's over you want to hug the television set.In other words-not good. I love Rena Sofer though(she can get better scripts) and Linda Evans is always fun to watch. Too much violence though and not ENOUGH payback at the end especially with the ambiguous last 30 seconds. Just another bad TV movie.

The Stepsister is a brilliant movie about a money grabbing woman named Joan who with a little help from her daughter, marries men, then kills them covering up the murders and then gets all there money. But, when Joan ends up falling in love with one of the men she's supposed to kill, her evil daughter, Melinda makes a cunning plan to kill them all and get the money for herself. She has to get past the mans daughter, Darcie though, who's very suspicious and knows something is up the minute she meets Joan and Melinda.Rena Sofer who plays the lead role here is brilliant as usual and is fast becoming one of my all time favourite actress'. Linda Evans who plays Joan is also good too. The only complaint I have is, Bridgette Wilson. She really doesn't do a job in her role. She's just whiny and annoying. Still, not even that can spoil this original suspense thriller.If you want to see a great thriller which keeps you interested all the way than The Stepsister is for you and I give it a 10/10.

"The Stepsister" is an interesting variation on the gold-digging wife storyline. This is a good attempt at a thriller, but it doesn't thrill nearly enough.All through the film, the tension seems as though it is rising to a dramatic climax, but alas, it doesn't come.There were competant performances from Bridgette Wilson and Rena Sofer in the main roles, and generally a new and different story line. Shame about the let-down ending.