Texas is a majestic and wide state, and it offers plenty of room for Diane Ackers to maneuver her way out of a pickle. Diane lost her fortune and her husband to a financial scammer named Mitchell Thompson.

Now, they both are using aliases, Dee Dee Martin and Mark Taylor after Mark left town with $500,000 of the Ackers money and Diane left flat broke. Now, a Texas-style cat-and-mouse game ensues with an especially clever screenplay.

Desperate to pay off her car repair bill, Dee Dee takes a job as a waitress at a diner in Midland, Texas. By happenstance, Mark Taylor shows up as a customer. Dee Dee then plots to expose him as a con artist. She receives help from Nando, a deputy officer, who turns out to be in cahoots with Taylor, both having served in the 92nd Airbourne in Desert Storm. But the quick-thinking Dee Dee never gives up, listening carefully to the master hustler to learn the techniques of a true confidence man.

Everybody loved Peta Wilson in the role of Dee Dee. As Diane Ackers, Wilson effectively created the urbane wife of an investor in the early scenes. She then switched gears to play the down-to-earth Dee Dee as the waitress. She received support from another waitress, Cerise, and a local grease monkey. The final scene at the airport was terrific as the blue collar version of a "Mission: Impossible" team moved into action.

"False Pretenses" was great fun, and there was a good theme of developing a scam, turning a big profit, and getting "Texas in my rear view mirror." That is exactly what Dee Dee pulled off with a little help from her friends.

Basic story line is a hot babe has a husband who commits suicide because he was swindled in a ponzi scheme. The babe wife decides to try and get even. She even gets a job working for the swindler in the town where he currently resides. The rest is a cat and mouse game often thwarted by a curious cast of characters.

HOWEVER, the pacing was off and not up to a higher caliber heist or swindle scheme type movies. View David Mamet, Spanish PRISONER, HOUSE OF GAMES, and others. Or the HEIST with Gene Hackman. The movie needed a more dramatic sound track...more mysterious lighting, tighter pacing, and better cinematography.

Lighting was way to Lifetime...no dramatic shadows, and was almost documentary like with actors not up to full par...perhaps the director couldn't bring out the best in each actor.

I like the premise, the characters, I bet the book is a better read than the movie. Some of the Lifetime movies are interesting however.

And you can always tell those Lifetime movies shot in Canada. They should make one in LA with a good sound track, direction, cast. But their budget is probably a million bucks, so they do the best they can. The stories are interesting tho...usually from paperback novels one can get off a rack, but the 'girl in trouble' is popular during the day and 'bad guy boyfriend' at night on this channel.

Yes, I would buy it in a bargain bin...like 2 for $5 Or tape it next time on Lifetime.

I caught this on the W network the other night and stuck with it because I was such a huge fan of 'La Femme Nikita' back in the day and Peta Wilson plays the vengeful wife here. She spends the movie seeking revenge against a con artist who finagled her husband out of all of their money, an event that later prompts him to commit suicide.

I'll be honest, this is not a great movie even for Lifetime. The acting is okay but it feels kinda choppy and rushed (Wilson's character didn't appear to mourn her husband at all before she hit the road to revenge) and there's also some with super boring parts involving the "Ponzi scheme". There were a couple twists I didn't see coming towards the end but still a very forgettable movie. 02.14.14