Naman Shrestha
With Kaila York at the helm, Lifetime’s ‘Secret Love Triangle’ is a thriller movie that follows Jessica, a falsely charged convict for the murder of her best friend’s husband. Determined to clear her name, get justice, and find the real culprit, she plans and manages to escape the prison. Waiting for her outside is her husband Matt who picks her up and together, they embark on a mission to prove her false conviction by getting to the bottom of the murder case.
However, while uncovering the case, Jessica unravels a deadly web of lust and deceit that brings out the secrets and reality of the most trustworthy people in her life. While the compelling performances of Brianna Cohen, Jonathan Stoddard, Harley Bronwyn, Loren Paul, Terrance Livingston Jr., and Katherine Nunez, elevate the narrative, the true-to-life themes and elements, such as deceit and wrongful conviction, of the Lifetime film put a certain question in the viewers’ minds — whether or not ‘Secret Love Triangle’ is rooted in reality?
Secret Love Triangle is a Work of Fiction
No, ‘Secret Love Triangle’ is not based on a true story. However, John F. Hayes, the screenwriter of the thriller, supposedly inculcated a few aspects of real-life events into the story. Whether it is the complicated theme of falsely convicted people or the complexities of a love triangle, both are not unheard of in reality. Since Hayes has worked on a number of thrillers over the course of his writing career, such as ‘Beware of the Midwife,’ ‘Deadly Cheers,’ ‘My Nightmare Office Affair,’ ‘Rooming with Danger,’ ‘Vacation Home Nightmare,’ and ‘Road Trip Hostage,’ he used his experience and creative mind to come up with the screenplay of the Lifetime movie.
Many of you might find traces of reality in different parts of ‘Secret Love Triangle’ as unfortunately, wrongful convictions and secret affairs are things that are seen in real life. However, the reason why you find the themes and subject of the thriller familiar is that they have been highlighted and explored in several film and TV projects over the years. For instance, the 1993 action thriller ‘The Fugitive’ revolves around similar central themes of wrongful conviction and the hunt for the truth. Featuring stellar cast members, including Harrison Ford, Tommy Lee Jones, Sela Ward, Joe Pantoliano, Andreas Katsulas, and Jeroen Krabbé, the Andrew Davis directorial is adapted from the eponymous series of the 1960s.
The narrative focuses on Dr. Richard Kimble, a vascular surgeon who gets framed for murdering his wife and upon being wrongfully convicted, receives a death sentence. Following a bus crash during transit, he manages to escape from custody. While getting chased and hunted by Deputy Samuel Gerard and his ruthless team of US Marshals, Kimble is on a mission to find out the real perpetrator who killed his wife, and clear his name once and for all. Given the numerous parallels between the two movies in question, it is understandable why many of you might connect them. Thus, all in all, despite the seemingly true-to-life elements and subject matter, ‘Secret Love Triangle’ is nothing but a work of fiction.
Read More: Sisters on the Run: Is the Lifetime Thriller Rooted in Reality?
