Naman Shrestha
With Tyson Caron occupying the director’s chair, Lifetime’s ‘Woman With the Red Lipstick’ is a thriller drama film that acquaints us with Lucy and her boyfriend whose relationship seems to be going through a rough patch. In hopes of spicing things up and keeping it interesting, the couple thinks that roleplaying might be able to help them get over this phase in their relationship. So, the two fake their identities and meet at a hotel bar and roleplay meeting for the first time as total strangers.
A few days after their roleplay night, Lucy comes across a missing persons case that leaves her shell-shocked. That’s because the victim has the same name that she used with her boyfriend just some night ago. Is this a rare coincidence or something sinister is brewing up? The suspenseful movie, featuring the likes of Rebecca Liddiard, Marshall Williams, and Paul Essiembre, deals with various true-to-life themes and elements, including cases of missing persons, leaving viewers curious about the authenticity of the tale.
Woman With the Red Lipstick Takes Inspiration From Reality
Yes, ‘Woman With the Red Lipstick’ is somewhat inspired by true events. The credit for the enthralling storyline should be given to Isobel Bradbury, the screenwriter of the movie. Although she had no prior experience writing for a movie or TV show, she made the most of her creative mind and excellent penmanship to come up with a gripping yet realistic screenplay for the Lifetime production, while supposedly taking some kind of inspiration from reality.
Just like Lucy assumes the identity of a missing person for fun and games by mistake, there are people in real life who actually commit identity theft fraud using another person’s identity. For the uninitiated, identity theft is when a person steals and misuses another person’s personal information, such as their name or credit card number, to commit crimes, mostly fraud. Such fraudsters seek the identities of people who are under the radar or even missing, for they can find information on such people fairly easily.
For instance, in September 2023, a Western Michigan-based woman named Leticia Gallarzo was facing up to 20 years in prison for using a real nurse’s identity to get nurse jobs in hospitals. Over the years, many movies and TV shows have also explored the predominant theme of identity theft, just like the Lifetime film. The 2013 crime comedy movie ‘Identity Thief‘ is one of the aptest examples that hilariously tackles the subject matter but educates the viewers about the crime indirectly.
Helmed by Seth Gordon, the Jason Bateman and Melissa McCarthy starrer revolves around a businessman named Sandy Patterson who finds out that someone in Florida has stolen his identity. In order to bring the fraudster to justice, he travels to the Sunshine State himself but gets sidetracked from his plans. Taking into consideration the above-mentioned factors and examples, we can conclude that although the specific story of Lucy in ‘Woman With the Red Lipstick’ might be fictional, the essence of the story, surrounding identity theft, is rooted in reality.
Read More: Dying in Plain Sight: Is the Lifetime Film Based on a Real Story?
