Ann Rule's A House on Fire (TV Movie 2021)

Ann Rule’s A House on Fire: Directed by Shamim Sarif. With Stephanie March, Shaun Benson, Connor Peterson, Isla Gorton. This movie is a semi-fictionalized account of a true life criminal case. Drs. Debora Green and Michael Farrar, married for seventeen years, have two offspring, young teen son Timothy Farrar and tween daughter Kelly Farrar, they living a middle class existence in Kansas City, MO. Deb and Mike met while they were doing their residencies together, their marriage despite Mike’s belief that Deb was way out his league in her beauty and brilliance, the latter which in reality only masked her social unawareness. Deb always aspired to greatness in all aspects of life, her obsession with scrap-booking solely vision boards of her perfect future, including photos of the specific mansion she wanted to own. Despite that brilliance, Deb’s career has seemingly stalled, partly in she feeling like she has to take on the sole role of committed parent, and partly in she not having the bedside manner to match her technical abilities, while Mike’s is imminently moving to the next level in being told by his superior that he is in line for the head of the Cardiology Department at the hospital where they both have practicing privileges. As Deb gets farther and farther away individually from that perfection, she begins to exhibit erratic behavior, which some onlookers believe are signs of self-medicating substance abuse, and true mental health problems, specifically possible bipolar disorder. These issues place a strain on their marriage, with Tim and Kelly caught in the middle, both Deb and Mike stating their opposing actions are looking out for the best of the children and in Deb’s case holistically for the family. Their story specifically of this situation is told in the immediate aftermath of “the incident

“Stephanie March does a decent enough portrayal of a supposedly-brilliant woman descending into madness. However, she seems to be the only decent actor in this movie. The others have a high-school-quality, u0026quot;Lifetime TV movieu0026quot; feel to them. Well, this is a Lifetime movie after all; what do you expect? Also, her actions towards the end do not quite line up with her brilliance, so I am made to guess there is more to the story than what the movie is letting on. It feels very incomplete and I feel cheated at the end.”