Lies Before Kisses 1991

The film opens at Abby’s birthday party, the daughter of Elaine [Jaclyn Smith] and Grant [Ben Gazzara], with Abby [Laura Dobbin] in the spotlight as guests toast another milestone. For a moment, everything feels like a perfect suburban scene: a successful businessman husband, a devoted wife, and a private family life that seems to run on uncomplicated trust.

But the facade cracks when Elaine overhears Grant having a private, flirty phone conversation with a 20-year-old woman. The moment shatters the sense of security she’s built around their marriage, and she confronts Grant, who dismisses the incident as a one-night stand with a call girl. The tension between them fizzes under the surface, yet life appears to drift back toward ordinary routines, as if nothing happened.

That fragile normalcy is promptly disrupted when Grant encounters the call girl, Adrianne Arness [Lisa Rinna], and photographs are captured of their meeting. The images, along with photos showing a bruised Adrianne, are sent to Elaine, who now faces a dangerous choice about how to respond to the growing stain on her family’s reputation. Grant, seeking to manage the situation, manipulates Elaine into thinking Adrianne is manipulating them, and he urges her to bring in an old family friend to dig into Adrianne’s motives. This leads Elaine to involve Sonny [Nick Mancuso], a trusted acquaintance who can probe Adrianne’s background discreetly.

As the investigation unfolds, Adrianne sues Grant for abuse, turning a private betrayal into a public legal battle. When Adrianne demands a settlement—a payment of $50,000—to drop the case, Grant agrees to the payout, hoping to quiet the scandal and protect the family name. The uneasy peace is short-lived, though: the very next day, Adrianne is found murdered, and the missing money becomes the clearest thread tying Grant to criminal suspicion. The case rapidly shifts from a personal grievance to a dramatic criminal inquiry, and Grant becomes the prime suspect in Adrianne’s death.

Elaine, feeling the weight of suspicion and betrayal, seeks solace with Sonny and begins an affair, an act that further complicates the web of loyalties and lies enveloping the couple. The audience learns, through a cascade of revelations, that Ross [Greg Evigan] was the architect behind the incriminating photo that began the chain of events. Elaine has harbored a long-standing desire to derail Grant’s life since realizing his infidelity, and she conspires with Ross to engineer a conviction for a crime Grant did not commit. Their joint plan is not just about vengeance; it’s designed to seize a larger stake in Grant’s business, ensuring they inherit wealth and power by dismantling what he has built.

Sonny uncovers a crucial link: Ross was indeed at Adrianne’s place on the night she died. He secures a house warrant to gather concrete proof, and the investigation leads to Ross’s arrest. Yet even as the walls close in, Elaine remains determined to protect herself, and she is blind to how closely Sonny has followed her every move. When Ross is released on bail, he confronts Elaine, who coolly tries to deflect blame and present herself as the innocent party in a web she herself helped weave. Sonny, however, quietly watches from the shadows, having placed a confidant within the room who can hear the full confession.

In the tense aftermath, Elaine makes one last bid to control the narrative. She attempts to seduce Sonny to secure her immunity, insisting that Ross was the true instigator while presenting herself as the wounded spouse who merely wanted to save her marriage. Sonny, however, sees through the ruse and vows to dismantle her plans, hinting at a reckoning that will shatter the life she has spent years constructing. The film winds toward a collision course between ambition, betrayal, and the fragile trust that binds a family, leaving the audience to ponder how far someone will go to protect a veneer of success—and what they are willing to destroy in the process.