Briana Fermia | Through the Shattered Lens

It’s pledge week!

Bailee (Briana Fermia) really wants to join the college’s nicest sorority and she feels that she established a real connection with Jana (Maddison Bullock) when she interviewed to be selected for one of the opening spots. Unfortunately, connection or not, there’s no room for Baileee because a legacy named Cori (Taylor Fono) has also applied. Cori’s mom was in the sorority. Cori’s sister was in the sorority. Therefore, Cori gets to be in the sorority! Yay! College traditions are the best!

Bailee confronts Jana about how unfair it is that she wasn’t invited to join the sorority. Jana feels guilty but what can she do? There’s just no space. But then, one night, Cori is attacked on campus. Due to her injuries, Cori has to withdraw from the college and therefore the sorority. Who can take Cori’s place? Jana has a suggestion!

Bailee is now in the sorority and it soon turns out that she’s totally clingy and kind of psychotic. She takes the whole idea of “sisters for life” very seriously and Bailee fully expects that Jana will be her sister for life. Jana, meanwhile, is like, “This is my senior year, I want to hang out with my boyfriend, and I want to finish up my science project so I can have a career once I graduate.” Soon, the other sorority sisters are getting drugged, framed, and attacked. Even Jana’s boyfriend gets attacked in the shower! Could it all somehow be connected to Bailee?

Of course it’s all connected to Bailee! The film wastes no time in making it clear that Bailee is not to be trusted. That’s the way Lifetime films work. Anyone who shows up out of nowhere and suddenly starts demanding that you be her sister for life is going to turn out to be totally unhinged. They always start out as slightly needy but seemingly sweet but, by the time the second commercial break rolls around, they’ve already put at least one person in the hospital or maybe even worse. Some people will go to outrageous lengths to have a friend.

Anyway, Sisters for Life was a fun, if slightly predictable, Lifetime film. As I’ve said in the past, though, the predictability is kind of the point. Familiarity is one reason why Lifetime movies are so much fun to watch. We’re always a few steps ahead of everyone else in the movie. Towards the end of the film, one character announces, “You’re the meanest sister that I’ve ever had!” with a totally straight face and if you can’t appreciate the self-awareness behind a line like that than Lifetime films just aren’t for you.

How far would you go to be popular?

Would you take a volunteer job at the hospital in an attempt to show everyone that you actually are a good person?

Would you lie about the terrible circumstances of your home life?

Would you try to become best friends with the most popular girl in school?

Would you donate an organ?

Would you….

Wait, what? Yes, you read that correctly. I did say, “Donate an organ.” I realize that may sound somewhat extreme but that’s exactly what happens in the Lifetime film, Malicious Motives! When Katie (Juliana Destefano) learns that the most popular girl in school, Ashley (Revell Carpenter), desperately needs a live transplant and that they share the same blood type, Katie agrees to be the donor! They only problem is that, since Katie is a minor, she needs to get the permission of a parent or a legal guardian. Unfortunately, her legal guardian is her trashy sister, Sasha (Briana Femia). Knowing that Sasha will never agree, Katie forges Sasha’s name.

Yay! The operation is a success! Ashley is going to live and it looks like Katie has a new best friend! However, when Sasha finds out that Katie donated part of her liver to someone else, Sasha is livid. Katie lies and says that Ashley’s family is going to pay them for the transplant but that it’s going to take a few months for the money to go through because it’s like super illegal. Sasha’s like, “Fine, just get the money!” Katie starts to make plans to become a part of Ashley’s family….

Seriously, poor Katie! I mean, Katie is technically the obsessive danger in this particular film but it’s still hard not to feel that life just hasn’t given her a fair chance. She has absolutely the worst sister on the planet! Not only does Sasha refuses to pick Katie up from the hospital but she also sells all of Katie’s pain killers! Imagine trying to recover from a major surgery with no pain killers. Making it even worse is that Sasha’s boyfriend, Brett (Conner Floyd), is a total perv who thinks that organ donation scars are totally hot. AGCK! You really can’t blame Katie for going a little bit overboard in her attempts to escape from that situation.

Still, donating an organ does seem like an extreme solution. But, then again, this is a Lifetime film and a part of the fun of Lifetime is that everything’s extreme. No one does the sensible thing, like calling the police. Instead, they donate an organ and then try to force their way into someone else’s family. The implausibility of it all is a part of the fun. If you can’t embrace the melodrama, these films will never be for you,

Ultimately, what matters is that Juliana Destefano gives a good performance as the sympathetic but unhinged Katie while Briana Femia goes wonderfully over-the-top as the sister from Hell. As I watched the film, I found myself appreciating my own sisters. They would never have treated me as badly as Sasha treated Katie. I will always be thankful that, because of them, I made it through high school with all of my organs intact.