Typical Munchausen syndrome story. Nothing new to see here. The oldest daughter made every stupid decision possible. I feel like I wasted my time with this. Don't waste yours.

Early in "Mommy Would Never Hurt You," Riley Howell makes a bold decision to leave home, making a beeline away from the clutches of a mother she knew was toxic. Young Riley then does well for herself in starting a successful bakery and meeting an upstanding male nurse in Aiden.

A major problem with the film was the pacing in which the mother from hell, Monica Howell, is keeping her younger daughter Beth in captivity with the excuse that she needs to be isolated from the world due to Guillain-Barré syndrome. The long, drawn-out scenes in the home failed to advance the action and turned into a snooze-fest.

The most interesting character in the film was Aiden, the nurse who recognizes that Monica is doing serious harm to Beth. But when Aiden pays a visit to the home, he does not keep his guard up, and is poisoned. With Aiden out of the picture and the dazed Riley in a stupor due to poisoning, the film became more and more unpleasant.

It was never made credible that a mother could treat both of her daughters are cruelly as Monica did. The filmmakers failed to offer an explanation for the unhealthy dependence of Monica on Beth.

At least there was some gallows humor to the biopic of Joan Crawford, "Mommy Dearest." But with "Mommy Would Never Hurt You," the psychological parts of the film never added up. And Monica herself never seemed aware of her derangement even at the film's end when she was aging gracefully in the penitentiary.

This is not a bad thriller . It has some twists and turns . It reminded me a bit of Flowers in the the Attic. Performances by the three ladies were good especially Libby Munro as the evil mother who poisons her daughter .