Out for Revenge
It's been a while since her husband died and gallery owner, Julie Stevens (Chandra West - A Christmas Tail) has avoided dating despite her son, Charlie (Madison Smith), encouraging her. And so when she meets Martin Hale (Steve Bacic - A Joyous Christmas), a single father, she ends up becoming involved, especially as Charlie has befriended Martin's daughter, Dana (Cate Sproule - Falling for Vermont). What Julie doesn't know is that Martin is an international con artist who whilst old habits die hard has promised Dana that he has left that life behind and they can actually settle down with out having to keep a watch out all the time. But soon Julie and Charlie's lives are turned upside as it seems someone has tracked Martin down and she is after revenge.
For about the first 30 minutes "Ring of Deception", which is also known as "Seduced by a Stranger", had me interested. Here we had an entertaining set up of Julie falling for Martin, a con artist, and their children also becoming close, a coincidence which works nicely as a set up especially with Martin having promised his daughter he is going straight. And on top of that we also have a woman martin conned before coming after him. The trouble is that once these pieces are in place the rest of the movie is pretty standard with danger, revelations and .... well there is a hilarious scene where Martin, as he scouts out Julie's home, seduces her to cover his tracks. It is a shame because there is enough in the set up of "Seduced by a Stranger" keeps you entertained.
But as I said, once the set up is in place most of the rest of the movie is pretty standard stuff and that means some of the characters and the way they respond is over the top. This is the case when it comes to the woman looking for revenge as sadly Lucie Guest is over the top when it comes to showing her character's inner rage. In fairness the way Lucie Guest acts in "Ring of Deception" is what you get in most made for TV movies but it does lower this as does some of the dialogue.
What this all boils down to is that their are things about "Ring of Deception" which are entertaining but at the same time there are all the usual issues which make this flawed and at times laughable.
