Dying to Be You (2020 TV Movie) User Reviews

Lifetime female-in-danger

[SnoopyStyle · 5/10 · 2 March 2021]

Lily Anderson (Elise Gatien) has been a pen pal to Molly since childhood. For unknown reason, Molly disappears offline for a short while. Suddenly, Molly Cumberland (Natalie Dreyfuss) shows up in real life. She's a little different. Lily invites her into her home.

It's a Lifetime movie and another woman-in-danger movie. With the opening, there is simply no mystery and therefore no tension. It's Single White Female without any character revelation. As a thriller, there is no thrill. It's rather flat. The girls are fine in their roles but it's all color-by-numbers.

Millennial Single White Female

[dasanimet · 6/10 · 1 July 2020]

I enjoyed it but couldn't help notice the plot is exactly like SWF from the 90s. The only difference is the opening scenes and the fact SWF is more of a thriller. But I actually enjoyed this a bit more so good job with the production.

Besties for Life

[lavatch · 7/10 · 10 April 2021]

"Dying to be You" (a.k.a., "Poison Pen Pal") is a film about jealousy. Little Molly Cumberland of Fairbanks, Nebraska began a pen pal relationship with Lily "Puddles" Anderson in Seattle. Now, the girls are grown up and the friends finally meet for the first time. But when Fairbanks meets Seattle, it will turn out that we have a major problem, Houston.

It becomes apparent right away to the audience that Molly is an imposter. And Lily begins to notice inconsistencies in Molly's story and her inability to recall information that she should know about their relationship. Molly moves in with Lily, begins to impersonate her, and actually starts to take over her life. Poor Puddles finds herself drowning in a sea of troubles.

While Lily may be slow in taking action against the Molly impersonator, the woman truly is diabolical. The most shocking moment is the brutal killing of Lily's boyfriend, Matthew. One of the most interesting characters is Lily's neighbor Mrs. Blankenship, who instantly recognizes that something is wrong with Lily's "friend."

While overly violent, the film was exceptionally well performed. There was a rise-and-fall structure to the characterizations, as Molly's fortunes were rising and Lily was tumbling into a depressed stupor. It was due to the quick-thinking boss, Gordon Emory, that a check was done on Molly's past and the imposter was finally unmasked. Shakespeare wrote about jealousy as "the green-eyed monster." Such a monster was unleashed and finally crushed to mark an end to the clash of the supposed pen pals and besties for life from Fairbanks and Seattle.

Millennial Single White Female x 2

[pervezmoya · 6/10 · 14 November 2020]

I total aggree with dasanimet's review. This movie make me remember the 90´s thriller "SWF". Then I guessed who was the villain at first quarter of film length. Aside from this It´s a enjoyable and suspenseful movie. Dreyfuss and Gatien make great role both. Lifetime movies have it's own way. This movies don't disappoint.

It's worth the watch....Another vote for reminiscent of SWF

[CranberriAppl · 4 May 2021]

Which I was too young to see in the 90s and it freaked me out. This is not as intense as SWF, but it's pretty high quality for Lifetime. Whenever Lifetime hits it out of the park with a movie like this, I always wonder why they only break out the good writers every few movies.

I don't want to rehash the plot, but it all follows through. What I liked is that this wasn't a new friendship where Lily was trusting someone she just met which is one of the worst Lifetime tropes. Even though she was still probably more trusting than she should have been since they'd never met, at least they'd known each other since they were kids. I had a penpal as a kid in the 90s, so this was a nice bit of nostalgia.

There were some terrifying (for Lifetime) and suspenseful moments. I was really afraid for the neighbor. I watched this movie during the day, and you know it's good when it has you on edge in the daylight lol. There is a twist that I didn't see coming that I will say is appreciated. It doesn't overly complicate the movie, but it adds a bit more depth to it.

If you've seen SWF, you know the framework for this movie, so just watch to see how they adapt it for the small screen. It's worth watching and Lifetime should air it more often.

Natalie Dreyfuss is amazing!

[dennischin · 6/10 · 27 April 2022]

I watched this mainly to see Natalie Dreyfuss, as I discovered her from a the Flash, and she is amazing in this! She's so good at playing bad and manipulative! Natalie has so much range as an actress.

Dumb

[LaverneandShirleysucks · 3/10 · 10 May 2022]

The psycho girl is a whole foot shorter than the roommate Lily but the boyfriend just starts kissing her from behind thinking it's his girlfriend?! Any idiot would've noticed immediately it's someone else.

And then Lily leaves the apartment in a huff after seeing them kissing and forgets to take her phone and absurdly assumes she lost it when any normal person would have known know they left it at the apartment for psycho girl to take.

The phone was still in her purse so she would obviously realize both the purse and phone are sitting in the apartment.

It's dumb plot holes like this that take you right out of the movie. And the red flags about the psycho didn't go up for idiot Lily for almost the entire movie. How dense can one be?!

3 stars because the actress who played Lily was good, even though her character was a clueless moron.

Lifetime done right

[pmtelefon · 8/10 · 1 March 2020]

Just like westerns, Lifetime movies are their own genre. You can do whatever you want but you have to play between the lines. "Dying to Be You" knows the rules. It plays by those rules and it delivers a solid, suspenseful movie. The entire cast does a nice job. Natalie Dreyfuss is very good. Elise Gatien is even better. Gatien gives a knockout performance. This is a good example of why I'm watching Lifetime every Saturday night.