Catfish
It's been six months since the train accident which left her suffering from memory loss and Nicole (Hannah Barefoot - Country Christmas Album) has only just been given the all clear to return to work, not that her husband, Mark (Thomas Beaudoin - The Spirit of Christmas), is too happy about it. But just as Nicole is trying to get to grips with her life she not only has an encounter with two mystery men who appear to know her but she is attacked by a third in her office. After going to the police it seems that these men had, prior to the accident, been in contact with her through an app for those who not only want affairs but something more kinky, which is a shock to Nicole as she doesn't do social media. Trying to get to the bottom of things Nicole first thinks someone has catfished her account but then she sees some photos of her with another man. Desperate to understand what is going on she begins to wonder whether she was having an affair and hopes digging in to this might unlock the memories which she has lost. But the more she digs the more she begins to question who she can trust as well as what happened to the man she thinks she had an affair with.
I have officially watched too many made for TV movies as pretty much every movie ends up having something familiar going on. In the case of "Off the Rails" the minute we learn that Nicole has amnesia and is married to Mark you can bet there is something not completely true about their relationship with Mark keeping something from her. And of course being a made for TV thriller you can bet that the climax is going to feature Nicole in danger and having to fight for her life.
But I have to say that what goes on in "Off the Rails" is curious enough to keep you watching even if you don't quite follow the merry dance it leads you on. Yes I did say merry dance because we have revelations concerning Mark and Nicole's relationship, revelations when it comes to who is behind the social media accounts, murky motives for people's actions and various characters who raise your suspicions over whether they are as nice as they seem. Of course many of these elements are nothing out of the ordinary but here the combination of them works. I am not going to explain what actually goes on because this is a movie with "a-ha" moments but I will say that there is enough of it to keep you watching and wondering whether any suspicions you may have are right or not.
As for the acting, well like with so many TV movies what you get in "Off the Rails" is the combination of forgettable characters played by an attractive collection of actors. But what I will also say is that Hannah Barefoot does enough to give Nicole some angst over her past but mixed with a desperate need to know which helps to make her interesting. At the same time Thomas Beaudoin gives Mark that element of tall, dark and dangerous which raises your suspicions about him right from the word go.
What this all boils down to is that "Off the Rails" is certainly not perfect and seems to get itself in a bit of a tangle let alone the audience. But there is some thing about this made for TV movie which is surprisingly intriguing and keeps you watching even when it appears to get itself in a tangle.
