Unstable Like a Poetry Fan
Sarah Miles (Alex Paxton-Beesley - Guilty at 17) was once a published poet with a book deal but these days she writes her poetry on a blog with much of it inspired by her troubled relationship with her controlling and unfaithful husband, Daniel (Jeff Teravainen - Flower Shop Mystery: Snipped in the Bud), who threatens her that he will get custody of their daughter if she tries to leave him. It is through her poetry blog that a fan, Lee (Cassandra Scerbo - Sharknado 5: Global Swarming), invites her to do a reading at the bookstore where she works. The reading and a friendship with Lee leads to Sarah having the confidence to not only write another book but to file for divorce which doesn't go down well with Daniel who ends up hitting Sarah. What no one knows is that Lee is watching when Daniel hits Sarah and the next day he is dead. Sarah quickly becomes the main suspect whilst becoming even closer friends with Lee who has a very dark side to her personality.
"The Perfect Soulmate" is the third Lifetime movie I have watched in a row and I thought I was on a roll as the first two movies had been surprisingly good with storylines which were layered and entertaining. Sadly this was a slap back down to TV movie reality as whilst it isn't terrible it is an incredibly typical and ordinary movie which doesn't have the layers that those other movies had. In "The Perfect Soulmate" we have a basic storyline of an obsessed woman with a psychotic side who becomes friends with a poet and ends up becoming psycho and controlling when things don't work out as she envisions them. Yes there is build up, there is an insight into why Lee is dangerous and psychotic, she feels her own life was ruined by her controlling and demanding mother. But this is a text book lifetime movie, a perfect fit in the collection of other "The Perfect..." movies.
The one thing which "The Perfect Soulmate" has going for it is Cassandra Scerbo who plays the dangerous and unstable Lee quite nicely so that when ever something happens which she doesn't like you know someone is going to suffer for it. In fairness Alex Paxton-Beesley does a decent enough job of playing Sarah, delivering the confusion of her world being turned upside down but the writing of the character isn't as strong and certainly doesn't have the stand out scenes which Cassandra Scerbo has.
What this all boils down to is that "The Perfect Soulmate" is just a routine made for TV thriller with a lot of routine ideas and characters done in a routine, almost factory line sort of way. But it does have Cassandra Scerbo who is pretty effective as the unstable Lee.
