After I wrote my review of Caught and watched the latest episodes of Survivor and South Park, it was time for me to continue cleaning out the DVR by re-watching and reviewing The Wrong Girl.  The Wrong Girl premiered on Lifetime on May 16th of this year.  At the time that it originally aired, I was in the middle of doing my Embracing The Melodrama, Part II series of reviews and I simply did not have the opportunity to properly review it.  But fortunately, I did DVR it.

The Wrong Girl tells the story of Sophie Allen (Sarah Grey), a teenager who is intelligent, responsible, fairly chaste, and a talented pianist.  She’s the dream teenager but one day, she meets and befriends the new girl in school, Michelle (Kirsten Prout).

At first, Michelle — with her oversized glasses and her social awkwardness — seems like she’s just shy and introverted.  But, the more that she hangs out with Sophie, the more another side of Michelle starts to emerge.  It soon becomes obvious that Michelle is obsessed with being Sophie’s friend and more than a little possessive.  She’s also a bad influence, telling Sophie that she’s playing well when she clearly is not.  When Sophie’s music teacher says she doesn’t want Michelle hanging out around piano practice, Michelle goes to extreme methods to change her mind.  When a condescending English teacher threatens to fail Sophie, Michelle blackmails him into changing his mind.

But then Sophie starts to feel that Michelle is getting too possessive and Michelle starts to turn against her “best friend.”  Michelle starts to dress and do her hair exactly like Sophie and then Sophie catches Michelle making out with her crush.  Someone breaks into Michelle’s mother’s office and throws stuff around.  When Sophie makes the mistake of telling Michelle that she’s scared of spiders, can anyone really be surprised when a huge spider suddenly shows up creeping across her piano in the middle of a recital?

The Wrong Girl starts out as a typical Lifetime “obsessive friendship” film but, once Sophie starts to investigate Michelle’s background, there’s a plot twist that pushes The Wrong Girl over the line from melodrama to over the top craziness.  And that’s okay!  The over-the-top craziness is one reason why people like me tend to love Lifetime movies!

Sarah Grey and Kirsten Prout are both well-cast, director Jason Bourque keeps the action moving at a good pace, and you get to hear a lot of really good piano music.  Kara Veri is credited as playing the piano and she does a great job!  The Wrong Girl is enjoyable fun, the exact type of movie that justifies why so many of us watch Lifetime.

(On a purely administrative note: With this review, I have 8 more films to watch and review and then my DVR will be officially cleaned out!)