To Have and to Hold (I) (2006 TV Movie) User Reviews

entertaining made for TV movie

[disdressed12 · 6/10 · 25 January 2007]

To have and to Hold has shades of Fatal Attraction,but is nowhere near as intense or complex.Justine Bateman Plays Meg,a woman who believes her husband,Tom(Sebastian Spence) is having an affair.he was,but has since broken it off.of course,the woman he was seeing cannot let it go,and keeps phoning or showing up where he is.this woman is not nearly as psycho as the psycho in Fatal Attraction.However her actions do lead to violence and murder.there are a few plot twists in this movie,but nothing that can't be figured out.Bateman and Spence are fine in the lead roles.this movie is a bit more morbid and depressing at times than many TV movies,but it still passes the time,and is not boring.To Have and to Hold gets 6/10

Stories like this are why "Ashley Madison" was invented...

[AlsExGal · 6/10 · 24 January 2016]

... because if you are going to have an affair and you are married, you want the other person to have as much to lose as you do if the affair gets found out. This is where Tom Davidson gets everything wrong. Normally men do this just for a bit of excitement (See 1987's "Fatal Attraction") because they may have a great wife who is still good looking and supportive, but they just think the grass is greener until it turns out to be hemlock.

In this case I guess the writer wanted us to feel a little sympathy for Tom (I didn't) because his wife's part time job is turning into a full time gig in real estate brokering. Thus, feeling neglected, Tom falls for (more like falls into bed with) Lisa, a younger hotter woman who seems to need him. That's the problem - she is very needy. And she's crazy, but Tom doesn't stick around long enough to figure that out. He's probably the highest class guy she's ever had. Then, suddenly, Tom has a change of heart. He breaks it off with Lisa with her crying and hanging on to him. She calls him, he still rebuffs her.

Then, Tom does a bone headed thing. He sends Lisa a card with money in it. Nothing makes a gal feel like a prostitute more than being treated like one, so Lisa does the logical thing. She gets a bag of ice and slams it into her face repeatedly until she is badly bruised. Then she goes over to her lowlife ex boyfriend's house - he is busy in the challenging task of getting to the next level in his video game - and shows him her bruises and he just takes it from there. She doesn't even have to lie. Did that new guy do this to you? Lisa: silence -implied "YES". Do you want me to beat him up to get even? Lisa: silence - implied "YES". And so it turns out that the lowlife boyfriend knows even more lowlife people than himself and gets them involved in the revenge scheme.

There are some unexpected twists and turns along the way, and then, towards the end, the lowlife boyfriend does something stupid that has nothing to do with Tom and his family and the boyfriend decides that he ...needs revenge on Tom AND his wife??? Perhaps this movie isn't shown that much because of the plot holes. Perhaps it's shown at all because Justine Bateman literally fell off the edge of the planet after "Family Ties" ended in 1989 (Justine plays Tom's wife) and people were curious about her acting talents and what she looked like at age 40, or maybe this film isn't shown that much because it shows that there are occasions when a gun in the home can be helpful - they are the great equalizer when your opponent is bigger than you or just plain stupid. One particular political party in the U.S. would not approve of that conclusion.

Watch it to know why a small town in horse country in Virginia has a population of 100 and 50 of them were on the Ashley Madison list that was recently published. They have too much to lose (financially) and they don't want to end up having their personal life being the story upon which a Lifetime Movie is based. Somewhat recommended for the goofiness of it all.

inferior Fatal Attraction

[SnoopyStyle · 4/10 · 6 July 2015]

Tom Davidson (Sebastian Spence) is cheating on his wife Meg (Justine Bateman) with Lisa Carver (Jessica Lowndes). Meg took on a job a year earlier and has become a successful real estate agent. While she continues to climb in her job, Tom would rather she stay home with their daughter Ellie. He doesn't like her working with her boss George either. Eventually Tom decides to break it off with Lisa but she does not take it well. She lies to Stevie about being beaten by Tom and Stevie sends his friend but he gets killed by Meg during the break-in.

There is some really bad crazy acting from Jessica Lowndes. It's not her fault. She's asked to do stuff that looks laughably cheesy. It is everything bad that is expected from a TV movie. This is 'Fatal Attraction' but as a lesser version with inferior everything. I'm not a big fan of that movie either but at least that has some great actors. This is the quintessential bad run-of-the-mill TV movie.

Hollywood does its part

[willraye · 3/10 · 20 June 2021]

To continue divisiveness. Meg kills the one Hollywood deems expendable. Just think. If the expendable one was cast as the husband there would be mo review calling him handsome. And if the intruder was not black, he would not have been killed or it would be murder instead of justifiable homicide. I might as well say it since the other reviews make personal statements about the actors instead of reviewing the movie. Also, the Lisa character is called psycho in movies like this as if the husband didn't do anything wrong. I watched this attempt at Fatal Attraction because I am a fan of Jessica Lowndes. The performances are decent. I am not a fan of the genre but it's watchable.

Not that good

[guilfisher-1 · 6 June 2008]

This 2006 made for TV mystery drama was a copycat to FATAL ATTRACION and not too good. Fault lies with the story and performances. I feel the director, Terry Ingram, did what he could with bad actors and probably a low budget, meaning a quickie production shoot. Shot in Canada it looked it. I thought the leading lady was over the hill in looks. In fact her husband looked more like her son. With that lined face, ugly mouth and Hitler hair do hanging over one of her eyes throughout the film. Didn't the make up people think of combing her hair even once in the movie? Her husband, played by good looking Sebastian Spence, had nothing to work with and really couldn't do much of anything but say his lines. As did the other male lead, Derek Hamilton. Both guys fared better than the ladies including the too much eye make-up Jessica Lowndes, also with long stringy hair, ala Dracula's daughter, as the other woman. What is it with these actresses and their straight hair hanging in their faces? It seems the wife can just walk into people's houses she doesn't know and poke around. William MacDonald as the detective was the only actor that seemed natural.

What a movie

[pumping_iron-1 · 4/10 · 24 June 2023]

I actually liked the script and the plot. But some of the actors were bad. The detectives played by Colin Lawrence and William MacDonald were good and believable. I was very disappointed in Justine Bateman's acting. She's been acting for a long time. I first saw her in Family Ties back in the eighties. I thought she was wonderful as Mallory. Maybe this just wasn't the right role for her. I also had difficulty buying her as the mother of a four or five year old. She looks good. But she is close to sixty years old. Also, she and Sebastian Spence, her husband had no on screen chemistry. But Spence played his role well. There were some stupid scenes like Meg (Bateman) trying to find the family of the man she had to kill. The man broke into her home and endangered everyone in her family. He had a long history of criminal activity. He apparently cared nothing about how his criminal life put his family at risk so why should Meg. I just didn't get it. But this was a decent movie to watch.

One Tough Lady

[lavatch · 8/10 · 18 February 2021]

"To Have and to Hold" was a well-crafted domestic drama and thriller. At the center of the film is Meg Davidson, a good wife, mom, and dynamic realtor. Her husband Tom is a liar and a lout. Tom's affair with Lisa eventually leads to a revenge break-in at the Davidson home. Lisa is about to be attacked by the assailant, and she stabs him in an act eventually ruled justifiable homicide. She then begins to investigate the break-in that leads her in the direction of the antics of her lying husband.

The filmmakers developed an interesting set of characters, including the obsessive Lisa, the woman with whom Tom was having the affair. Her ex-boyfriend Stevie plots the break-in with his pal Dereck Renfrew, who is murdered by Meg. The ex-con Stevie then messes things up by hatching multiple plots to distance himself from the Davidsons. Of course, his schemes have the opposite effect, drawing him in deeper due to the persistence of Meg.

The driving force of the film is the quick-thinking Meg, who asserts to her therapist that "the door to badness has been opened." Indeed it has, as Meg discovers her husband's infidelity and the consequences of his lying to her and her family.

There is much innuendo surrounding Tom that is quite unsavory. There was some troubling subtext between Tom and young Erica, the daughter of Meg's best friend Joannie. The film never made clear the circumstances of something that happened in the past between Tom and Erica. The perceptive Meg also catches Tom flirting with the cashier at a burger joint. Subtlety is not Tom's strength.

In the denouement, it was a stretch to believe that Tom's was redeemable and deserves a second chance. Will the relationship ever be the same? Tom's fate clearly rests in Meg's hands. She is wise to "take it slow" in determining the future role that Tom will play in her life. The one undeniable truth about Meg was recognized by the savvy police detective: She is "one tough lady."

Twisting Plot Creates Interest in "To Have and to Hold" ***

[edwagreen · 8/10 · 26 May 2007]

A married man has an affair. You would think that when he would try to break it off, there would be blackmail. This is not the case and that's what makes this film out of the ordinary.

Instead of the blackmail concept, the plot is twisted where it is made to look that the guy is trying to kill his wife and in the process, she has killed the intruder.

Justine Bateman, as the wife, appears too old for the part. Unfortunately, she looks a lot older than her husband.

The girl who would not let go brings only downfall to the guy who loves her and has hired someone to beat up the husband. Instead, Bateman kills the intruder and the other two now try to extract revenge.

Better than expected...

[bhakta_allison · 8/10 · 9 December 2008]

Typical movie of a moneyed man having an affair with a "lower class" woman. After all the chaos ensues and someone is dead, the man naturally calls his ex-lover a "skank" despite the fact that he enjoyed that "skank". Glad to see at the end how there was not an automatic reconciliation as in "Fatal Attraction". Hollywood tells women to take back these cads. Great how the wife kept her daughter and lived away from her husband rather than just take him back and blame the "skank". I do agree how Justine Bateman looked a little too old for her husband. I felt sorry for the younger woman. She was roped in by someone who she felt treated her better than the punky men she has been with and ended up dead in the process. Tom treated her like a prostitute once he was done with her. Again, glad the guy did not turn out to be the hero when the story was over.

Neckerchief

[Annajade24 · 27 September 2012]

Wow this movie is good. I mean really really good. Justine Bateman wears a neckerchief in the beginning that is to die for. He is a bad husband though, that's a bummer for her because she seems to like him even though he is gross with a capital G. He has the relations with the one young girl and then her boyfriend with the nasty hair hires someone to mess him up. All in all it was really believable. I couldn't find it anywhere, but I think this was based on a true story. My high school teacher's sister had the same exact thing happen to her except that she wasn't married to a man. She had like 8 cats or something crazy like that. Can you imagine how her house smelled? Probably not good. Anyway. I give this movie one thumb up. I would give it two but one of my thumbs is arthritic and is all crooked and bent when I try to stick it up and it's really embarrassing. My roommate calls me ol crook thumb. sometimes it hurts my feelings, but i usually laugh it off. So, in closing, I suggest you watch this movie with a friend who doesn't pick on your flaws.