User Reviews

"Secrets in the Building" is listed as a thriller, but some of the scenes and situations are so chilling that it might be classified as a horror film.

Michelle Green and her daughter Norah have recently moved to California for a fresh start. Michelle is a widow, and the mother and daughter are still grieving the death of Eric. Michelle has purchased a beautiful condominium with a spectacular view of the city of Los Angels that extends all the way to Catalina. But Michelle and Norah are in for the fight of their lives in order to live in peace in their new residence.

Specifically, the tormentors of these nice people appear to be everyone!!!

There is the aggressive maintenance man, the sadistic school principal, and, above all, the neighbors Helene Mathieson and her bratty daughter Channing. Everything seems to be conspiring to make the lives of Michelle and Norah miserable. The only breath of fresh air for Michelle is contractor named Josh, who would appear to be her knight in shining armor. Or is he?

The most repellent of the characters are Helene and Channing, who are so mean-spirited that nearly everyone who crosses their path leaves with a bad impression. For this reason, their complete transformation at the end lacked credibility. The film's denouement was unconvincing in the sharing of cozy vibes after a truly epic struggle on the part of Michelle and Norah to keep their room with a view.

I wasn't even going to review this film, but clearly "deedrala" did not pay attention... Or worse, could not comprehend it, even with it being so incredibly simplistic.

The ENTIRE reason why Josh/Dan struck up a relationship with the newcomers, was so he can have access to their unit/condo. It literally could not have been more obvious that the teddy bear he brought was a decoy/teddy~cam.

The existence of said camera answers all of the questions s/he laid out in her/his review. He could monitor their comings and goings, as well as their guests', and when they'd eat the cake {which, admittedly, is pretty gross that they ate it so long after he made it, even refrigerated}. He used that info as his cues.

The screaming match that Helene and Channing had was also fairly obviously about H's ex-husband/C's dad, who Helene pleaded that C avoid, cautioning her that he was "just using" her". Moreover, it was clear that it was a male who Channing was complaining to on the phone in the locker-room after Norah's soccer tryout, when she asked him to "fix it". All hints pointed to it being her estranged dad; though one MIGHT consider/suspect it could POSSIBLY be Aiden, albeit unlikely.

"Josh" likely keyed the car in the night, or had his kid be his lookout, which explains his gall and ability to carry it out.

Re: the end, Michelle was still moving after Dan attacked her, so she absolutely could've made it downstairs in time to save her kid.

This film was a pretty run-of-the-mill soapy original Lifetime movie: terribly predictable, mostly overacted, and at times frustrating. That said, it's hilariously ironic when reviewers can't pick up on that which is COMPLETELY SPELLED OUT in such films, that even they, themselves, deem elementary ("fourth grade" is what that reviewer stated). Laughable, and a bit unfortunate.

Nonetheless, I enjoyed the film. The acting by both moms was decent, and the actress who played Michelle was particularly authentic & engaging. The scenery was well lit, but at times confusing between the residence- which looked like an office building or school- in the school itself. (Even the bizarre sign in the elevator at the end alluded to it being such, though I guess they converted the now vacated condo to the CS office.) I completely agree about Lawrence and Channing being WAY OTT, and C's sudden transformation being unrealistic. Norah also irked my soul at times, being too meek an naive, esp in such a new environment. It's true that no one (including Lawrence) liked Helene, but she was admittedly troubled, and did try to connect with Michelle (who reciprocated).

There were also a few continuity errors: The nonsensical debate/convo btwn Aiden & Norah re: walking her home was a moot point, being that she DROVE to the party. Channing arrived home before Norah did, even though the disciplinary talk did not take longer than the soccer practice. The hostess of the party did not see C in her home, even when she went to the pool area where the hostess was standing. These errors were minor, but noticeable, thus annoying.

I'd say that the most annoying one was in the end when the pair remained inside, as police escorted the assailant out...when the building was about to be FUMIGATED.

It's debatable whether or not Helene would know about the true Josh's vaca/absence, but Michelle was uncharacteristically idiotic to eat the cake after what she'd literally JUST learned. I thought the writers missed a good opportunity to have M take "Josh" up on the camera offer, but perhaps they couldn't see a good ending with that. At least they did finally tie her deceased hubby's golf club in at the end.

Still, I was interested in seeing the film through, curious how it would all turn out. Light & easy watch. 5.3/10.

"Secrets in the Building" / "Killer Condo"

I'm seriously beginning to believe some of these bad Lifetime "movies" were dreamed up and written by either grade school children or young adults who never made it past fourth grade. The plethora of plot holes were ridiculous with this one:

1) 'Josh'/Dan would have NO WAY of knowing when Michelle and Norah would eat the drugged cake he brought them right after Norah was hit by the car, yet he and Channing showed up shortly after they passed out from eating the cake which was at least a week after he gave it to them, since Norah was all healed up from the injuries from the car hitting her.

2) The screaming fight between Helene and Channing which seemed to be about someone Channing was in love with and insisted on staying with, was never explained or part of the plot. Channing was never shown to have a boyfriend or a man she was fighting to keep over her mother's objections.

3) What was with the same white Tacoma truck being used by both Michelle when she moved in at the beginning and Helene when she moved out at the end? Neither one of them owned a truck at all, much less the same exact color and model.

4) The entire premise of 'Josh'/Dan openly coming and going while visiting Michelle at random times of day and night was the biggest plot hole of all, since his wife Helene and daughter Channing lived in the same building. He couldn't possibly know when they might be visiting Michelle's place or walking around inside or outside the building, in the parking lot, etc.

5) Helene assured Michelle that her ex-husband Dan was long gone and wasn't stalking her anymore - since she had lived in the same apartment that Michelle moved into, yet how could she be sure of that? She couldn't possibly know if he had given up stalking her and that he was long gone.

6) It's unlikely that Helene wouldn't know that the real Josh was on vacation in Israel since he was the building contractor there and he had been on vacation for over a month when Michelle first told her about Josh being her new boyfriend and she had just met him there in the building.

7) Apparently it was 'Josh'/Dan that keyed Michelle's car, but he took a big chance at not being caught when he did it, since it was in the lighted parking lot of the huge condo building where anyone could have either seen him out their window or driving down the street, etc.

8) Why did 'Josh'/Dan even bother to strike up the romantic relationship with Michelle and take her out on dates and visit her at the apartment as a friend/lover? His end goal was to get her and her daughter out of the apartment, so why have the romance with her in the first place? It was unnecessary contrived baggage to the already-weak plotline - obviously just for the shock value when it was revealed he was the villain. The child-minded writers of this crap apparently thinks the audience of mostly adult women are just as dumb and vapid as they are.

9) And last but not least - there is NO WAY that Michelle would have been able to make it down all those flights of stairs after being knocked out by the hammer blow to her head, just in the nick of time to save her daughter; JUST as the psycho was about to kill her with a fatal blow to her face/head. But at least she didn't just hit him once and then throw down her weapon (golf club) next to him for him to get up and use against her and her daughter, which shocked me to no end since that's the usual thing for victims to do in LMN movies.

The Lawrence character was over the top, as was the Channing character, but both were wrapped up in a nice neat bow when she suddenly turned human toward the end and will now gladly accept therapy, and Lawrence being civil and helpful about changing the door lock.

Trying to think of something positive to say about this....thing....before ending my review. If I had to conjure up something, I guess it would be the relaxed, loving relationship of Michelle and Norah, subtly shown in their good-natured, gentle ribbing of each other, which is the best kind of dynamic to have with a parent at Norah's age.

However, there's so much bad about it that it barely leaves any room for anything good. I would hope that the players/"actors" did it whilst mentally holding their noses, just for the paycheck - because it would be worrisome if they actually believed it was a good script.

P. S. I must comment on one part of the only other review here (so far anyway), by 'lavatch': the statement that no one liked Helene and Channing was only half-correct. Helene was not as unlikeable or hateful as her daughter Channing. She was very friendly and welcoming to Michelle when she moved in and with the chicken soup when Norah was sick with the migraine. She was just being protective of her daughter during the mix-up with Michelle's false accusation of the break-in, and when Channing lied to her about Michelle and Norah attacking her.

Grade F / 1 out of 10.

This was a semi-typical Lifetime thriller I guess. There's the widow Michelle and her daughter Norah who move into a two bedroom condo. They are met by divorcee Helene and her daughter Shannon. Almost immediately Shannon acts weird towards Michelle. And it just escalates as the movie progresses.

Then there is the building contractor Josh who turns up to do some repair work in Michelle's apartment. Almost immediately sparks fly between the two, and they begin dating. I guess it wasn't hard for her to forget her dead husband who died only one year, in fact Norah. And stupid Nora didn't seem that bothered with her mom moving on and dipping into the dating pool. In fact she encouraged her mom to go for it. I guess the bar for their moral standards is so low it's touching the ground practically. Norah meets new friends at school and likes a boy named Aiden.

What was seriously unrealistic was how Michelle quickly gave in to Josh the building contractor, whom she hardly knew anything about, which is a fancy term for handyman, her being a professional and all.

A lot of accidents and attacks take place with finger pointings.

Right from the outset I disliked Josh the handyman. There was something about him and I turned out to be correct. He happened to be Dan the ex-husband of Helene and father of Shannon (psycho girl). As it turned out Don manipulated Shannon into orchestrating everything, because Shannon was led to believe that they were out to force Michelle and Norah out, so that the three of them could get back together and move into their original apartment.

As it turned out Shannon did not want her dad killing Michelle and Norah and framing her mom. The ending was not bad I suppose for a Lifetime movie.