Jodi Arias: Dirty Little Secret

I have read some bad reviews of this film and I have to say, after watching the film I was pleasantly surprised.

There are parts of the story that have been altered as Hollywood expects a certain glossy finish to its films. The bulk of the story however remains the same. It is a little like fatal attraction and when you find yourself thinking that you stop for a moment and realise, "hang on, this actually happened".

The story, for anybody who knows about the case, is predictable for its genre but the lead actress Tania Raymonde is not bad in the roll at all. She plays the part of Arias quite well and her little jealous outbursts were that convincing she reminded me of an ex of mine! All in all its not a bad film. The only criticism I would have is they don't spend enough time on the trial. This film however is well worth watching!

By dirty I mean the director and producer expect us to sit around watching this slut type prance around making off she's a winner. WRONG. She's not that terrific looking, too much hair, no body to lure anyone with and has this pouty mouth (like her lower jaw extends her upper.) Let's not talk of the plot as there are so many similar ones of the past and so much better. Like the leading vamp could act in those. This one just poses like she thinks all men are attracted to her looks. AGAIN WRONG.

You can also predict she will kill all those in her way. The same as before. I just get tired of looking at her with her dipity-do hair style. So, in summing this trash up, and I won't mention names to protect the rest of the unfortunate cast, this is a horrendous film with a bad leading lady, a stupid plot and not for any seeing eyes to sit through. Amen.

Jodi Arias: Dirty Little Secret (2013)

* (out of 4)

A new crime tale overtook mainstream America so naturally Lifetime would turn it into a movie. Jodi Arias (Tania Raymonde) begins a torrid sexual affair with Travis Alexander (Jesse Lee Soffer) and soon she becomes obsessive and kills him. Am I the only person in the world who finds Travis to be a bad guy? I certainly don't agree or condone what happened to him but at the same time I must admit that I found him to be a jerk by the way he just wanted to use this woman for sex, keep her in the background and hidden from his friends and pretty much just use her whenever he needed her. Sure, thousands if not millions of guys do this to women but most of them don't do it to someone crazy, which is obviously what Jodi was. This Lifetime movie is pretty awful all around and largely because you really don't learn anything about either people and we're left with a story of unsympathetic characters and certainly no one to life. Director Jace Alexander takes a fairly interesting "case" and turns it into a pure case of boredom because there's no energy, no life or anything else going on here. The entire film seems to run on longer than the real-life trial because we just keep getting scenes that add up to nothing. This here is more like a low-rent version of FATAL ATTRACTION but without the performances, tension or style. The movie has all sorts of problems including how it goes all out to paint Travis as this clean-cut Mormon who did nothing wrong and just wanted to help people. We get at least two scenes where Jodi sexually comes onto him while he turns away. Yet, minutes later, we see them two in a steamy sex affair where he's the one using her. You can't have it both ways. Even worse is the fact that these scenes trying to make Travis look clean are done in such a way that you really can't help but laugh at them. Both Raymonde and Soffer are good in their roles but sadly they're just not given much to do. When one watches Lifetime you really don't expect quality but I must say this here is without question one of the worst products they've'e turned out.

I for one never followed the real life Jodi Arias murder trial, because it always tied up HLN during the day so I never got to see any of the cute female news anchors on the network! No just kidding I'm not much into real life trials, anyway when a movie is brought to life about a shocking real life drama I'm in for a watch. And seeing that they would be plenty of eye candy in the form of Tania Raymonde made me a numerous watcher of this Lifetime TV movie. Boy if the real Jodi Arias looked this beautiful more people would have watched the real life trial! Tania Raymonde rocked with her performance her turn was cold and obsessive, and jealous possessive like a little devil. Yet the many scenes of Tania in those many sexy colored bras and panties was sexy it made the film thrilling to watch! Anyway starting in 2006 when Jodi(Raymonde)meets Travis at a motivation convention in Las Vegas, a sparkle is in the air. And upon a moment of hotel seduction where Jodi(Raymonde's such hot body) sports a green strapless bra with a lap dance showed that this was one wild push the limit get her way kind of girl! Yet from the get go Jodi showed signs of being jealous, and very possessive with being upset when another woman looked Travis's way she didn't even want any friends for him. The relationship was based on their hot and wild sex sessions that involved nude photos, online porn and of course Jodi wearing very sexy lingerie. This California girl was rocking the world of Travis now in his home state of Arizona.

Thru it all it proves that without real love the sex and lust will fail in the end as the obsession and jealous like possessive behavior of a wicked woman leads to tragic ends for all involved, a blood death and a life sentence as passion kills and dies with the wrong person and when no love is around it's doomed. Still the performance of Tania Raymonde is so hot and sexy she's one actress on the rise.

I understand the negative reaction to the portrayal of the victim. He was brutally murdered and Jodi said very hurtful words to his family at the trial but this movie was trying to address the relationship before that jarring event.

The writers were depicting a relationship where the couples annihilate each other. Had Travis never met Jodi, he would have married a nice Mormon girl and had a normal life and Jodi might have had more conventional relationships. But together they both needed and consumed each other. I don't know if this is true to real life but it made for a great LFM movie.

She wanted both an intense sexual and stable relationship, she was drawn to his self-confidence and moral upbringing. He wanted to maintain his standing in the Mormon Community but craved her intense sexuality like a Heroin addict. Was he using her? There was some ambiguity there. It's human nature to want to choose a side but I found myself cheering for them and cringing when it turned bad.

A good example of this dynamic was the barbecue, she really tried to fit in but you see her insecurity leading to a possessiveness and his peer's disapproval behind their smiles. The sexual chemistry between the two actors was very convincing. Tania Raymonde was great to watch.