The Baby Swindler (2023 TV Movie) User Reviews

Obvious movie is obvious and it dragged on too long

[CranberriAppl · 5 April 2023]

That's not spoiler (but I'll mark it anyways). Occam's Razor applies here: the simplest explanation is the right one. This movie was so obvious from the first three scenes that it was annoying to sit through. I only finished it on the wildly off chance that Lifetime would surprise me. So many signs telegraphing the mystery.

Oh but Susie is not blameless and should be held accountable for her actions. What's with trusting complete strangers after no time at all? She was so hesitant with women her doctor actually vetted that her acceptance of Lorna was absurd (not a spoiler). Is making characters so dumb the only way these movies can work (rhetorical)? Why would she, after meeting this girl once: 1.not even verify she's who she says she is and 2.not even talk to the doctors/nurses about the procedure. She just took Lorna's word for it that the implantation worked out swimmingly and there was nothing more she needed to know. Absolutely ridiculous. It just gets more absurd with the things happening that don't cause Susie to buy a clue. For as skeptical and hesitant as she was in the beginning, giving Lorna so much leeway when it was HER eggs was just weird. She was cautious until it was convenient not to be.

The movie then just continually adds details which dilute the story but honestly don't distract from what you will realize is going on. Suze got her friend killed bc she didn't want to go to the police. How many "friends" have to die so the protag can do what she (usually) wants? Her friend Helen absolutely deserved better.

Sucks that this was so predictable and uninteresting bc I really like Jason C and the actresses who play Susie, Grace, and Lorna. I've seen them all in better stuff. It took me three tries and I finally just decided to watch it while wfh since I would have fewer distractions. I probably won't watch this again.

Something positive: the baby was adorable. Another positive: the climax was predictable, but had a "twist" that I didn't expect. Kind of shocking actually, so props for that.

PS...You could even tell that was SPOILER in the standard movie attacker gear.

Awful

[lesliepatenaude · 1/10 · 29 June 2023]

Please go tear your hair out or watch paint dry. Either will be better than watching this drivel. This movie has a poor plot full of holes, no common sense and so much predictability that the viewer can see what's coming at every turn. No surprises or twists unless you're brain dead. One cliche after another. The brother gets himself into debt and wants to steal his sister's insurance money but instead of just doing that he sets up a grift involving a young woman who is a surrogate for his sister after her husband passes. He and his wife want a baby and can't afford to pay, so they choose this surrogate because she's also indebted to the brother as he loaned her money she couldn't pay back. Not sure why someone that's already broke is loaning a young girl money that clearly she won't be able to repay. It just completely compounds the problem. Even worse the brother also loans money to a con who just got out of prison and he can't repay his loan either. Big surprise there. Its so ludicrous that I'm laughing as I write this review. Who writes Lifetime movies? Drunken out of work soap opera authors that were previously fired due to poor skills? Good grief.

Complications in Pregnancy

[lavatch · 7/10 · 15 April 2023]

In "The Baby Swindler" (aka, "A Deadly Surrogacy"), Susie Ashcroft's desperation in having a baby leads her donate an egg to a surrogate so that she may honor her late husband Michael and have a meaningful remembrance of him in her child. But complications arise when the surrogate named Lorna, who was introduced to her by Susie's brother Andrew, appears to be leading a secret life.

The amount of lying that takes place involving Andrew and his wife Grace is on an epic scale. There is also a jaw-dropping depiction of the brother-sister relationship. Susie's trust is so deep and her worldview is so naive that she once thought Andrew and Grace were the perfect couple. The same could be said of Mr. And Mrs. Macbeth.

It was unfortunate that Susie's co-worker Helen became collateral damage when she was doing some digging into the past transactions of Michael's business and his association with Susie's brother Andrew. IMBd user CranberriAppl, who always offers incisive film commentaries, raised this query: "How many "friends" have to die so the protag can do what she (usually) wants?" Namely, instead of going to the police, Susie sacrifices her friend on the high altar of her own impulsiveness.

The literally over-the-top, melodramatic ending in a fracas on a rooftop has to be seen to be believed. A mad scramble ensues with the very pregnant Lorna deeply involved in the tussle. In the film's denouement, the debt-ridden liar Lorna is off to Southeast Asia. May viewers look forward to a sequel depicting the adventures of Lorna in Thailand, Vietnam, and Malaysia?