Some things I liked some I did not.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

This Lifetime film does a great job of depicting a pathetic relationship and sensational crime story that became fodder for the tabloids back in 2008.Tania Raymonde and Jesse Lee Soffer are thoroughly convincing as the obsessive seductress Jodi Arias and the Mormon motivational speaker Travis Alexander, whose in-the-shadows relationship was as torrid as it was dysfunctional.As is so often the case in dangerous liaisons, warning signs were present from the beginning. Jodi broke a boundary the first time she addressed Travis -- by barging into a men's room while he was urinating! It was just the first of many violations that Alexander refused to take seriously enough. He couldn't resist the sexy curves of a woman who knew all too well the power she held over men -- temporarily. Guys tended to use and discard her. This film depicts Jodi as an obsessive stalker who, in the case of her latest love -- a man who preached high standards but didn't follow them -- wasn't willing to accept another rejection.I don't know how accurate this movie was, but it does offer an explanation for how Jodi could have had sex with Travis, photographing him sensually in the shower, only to stab him shortly thereafter and shoot him in the face. The performances here are stellar, and the director creates tension as we watch Jodi up the ante, tormenting and then terrorizing a man she seems to both love and detest. Finally, in June 2008, he invites her in for tea. What were you thinking, man!? But then again, Travis didn't use his head much when Jodi was around. Jodi's boundary problems were evident from the start and the movie suggests Alexander had similar issues. He is amazingly open to reigniting passion with Jodi in the face of her increasingly sinister behavior, sending grievously mixed messages to a deeply troubled woman.To this film's credit, we get to know each of the principals in depth, with neither being shown as wholly likable or abhorrent.In all, this was magnificent work!

Surprisingly well done! I expected much less, so I was very pleased. The movie starts out strikingly flashing forward to the sensual, last photo shoot between lovers Jodi and Travis. It then moves back to the beginning of a story of love, hate and obsession, a modern day fatal attraction parable. Males, beware of unbridled sex without love, it seems to say. There's always a price to pay. For Travis, it was the ultimate price.Based on the infamous and horrible murder everyone's heard about,it shows how two attractive, smart, young people, Travis and Jodi, meet, in a Sin City Convention. Travis is a motivational speaker. Jodi goes gaga over Travis. Soon, they make passionate love. She falls for him,strongly! Trying to be his significant other, she even becomes a Mormon like him. According to the well written, credible script, Travis, however,soon realizes Jodi is not marriage material.He takes his religion seriously, which requires chastity, but he can't stop having great loveless sex with Jodi! Travis loving, close Mormon friends think Jodi's unfit and obsessed, want him to get rid of her. So he goes underground with Jodi, as his "dirty little secret", for a sexual relation. When he realizes he's getting in over his head, that Jodi wants more,he tries to break off. She doggedly pursues him with menacing and sick stalking. Hurt and disenchanted that Travis has a new, marriage-material girlfriend, Jodi plans revenge by horridly killing him in a gruesome bloodbath. Visually, the cinematography is stylish, with lovely bright, photography of their lovemaking leading to its horrible, almost unbearable-to-look-at climax, in slow motion.Other visual water tricks are awesome,as when the camera moves from the spiritual to the sensual, from Jodi's Mormon baptism to her cavorting in a Jacuzzi with Travis. The actors are an unexpected treat, both the main ones and the supporting cast. Tania Raymonde as Jodi is uncanny-even better than the real Jodi! She's alluring and sexy, totally credible as a wolfish seductress posing as innocent Little Red Riding Hood. In minutes, the real Jodi blends into Tania,we forget Jodi for this better version. Her characterization is as good as can be, sassy, alluring, sexy,creepy. Her innocent, little girl act is as good as Arias'. Her angry, evil persona is terrible and fearful. Her look as she shoots Travis in the final ritual sacrifice is frightful.. I also found Jesse Lee Soffer very suitably cast as Travis. At first he looks lightweight and boyish, but as the story progresses he develops Travis into the charismatic and attractive guy Jodi would fall in love with. Soffer plays Travis with the right blend of innocence and roguishness.The scripted role makes his characterization human, sympathetic and likable. Not much is made in the script of Travis importance as big brother to his siblings.But the movie does make his awful death heartfelt, poignant and tragic. One is left with a sad sense of the pitiful loss of a valuable human being by an obsessed and vengeful monster,For a Lifetime movie, this movie surpassed all my expectations. The way the script treats Jodi's relation to her grandmother and friends humanizes her.It helps to soften her image without justifying her horrible deed. The last ten minutes summarizes the arrest and trial kind of shoddily, not enough development. One wishes to have it more leisurely treated in a Part II. Even as roughly sketched, Jodi's weird behavior during interrogation with Detective Alvarez and also, the subsequent Martinez badgering during the trial are witty and interesting, leaves you wanting more. This is certainly not a masterpiece, but as Lifetime movies go, an above average, respectable representation of a compelling real story. The fatal love story of Travis and Jodi is credible, engrossing, even thrilling. Would you believe the director's name is Jace Alexander, like the victim? Pretty good direction, for a speedy job.

I have been following the Jodi Arias murder trial, mostly out of fascination. Sociopathy has become more intriguing to me over the years - realizing that so many sociopaths walk among us and we are completely unawares. Much of what I have learned is from a book called "The Sociopath Next Door" by Martha Stout. The book is so good that it should be required reading in social studies. It could help a lot of people avoid tragedies like these.I thought that Tania Raymonde did a great job of emulating Jodi and what many have come to believe her motives were. While what Jodi did was heinous beyond belief - the target of her affections which crossed into butchery was not entirely a saint. It was clear that Travis used Jodi for sex and then discarded her like yesterday's trash when he decided to pursue finding himself a suitable Mormon wife - but not entirely. He kept Jodi around like many men and women do to keep those booty calls handy.Many of the true details of their relationship that I believe were critical were completely left out. For instance, the coy way that Jodi was heard to act like a little girl in real life phone conversations with Travis. Also, the movie didn't cover any of the sordid sexual details that Travis himself admitted to on the phone. Tania seemed far more mature than Jodi has - and I didn't see any indication that she ever took on the role of a coy teenager.I also got the feeling that Tania Raymonde's portrayal was more sexually mature than Jodi. I could not imagine Jodi being that appealing. Also, from the trial accounts there was some big todo about whether they were having regular, traditional sex or not. It seemed that they did certain things more regularly in an effort to conform with the Mormon faith that he espoused and she joined. Either way, they broke the rules because they weren't supposed to be having sexual contact prior to marriage anyway. And there is no doubt in my mind that Travis never thought of Jodi as marriage material. She became the booty call that he hid from people -- so the title really works here -- because she really was his dirty little secret. Finally, the moments before Jodi murdered Travis indicated that she became especially peeved by a text message. The fact that she went to great lengths to dye her hair, get gas cans so she wouldn't have to stop for gas and turned her cell phone off -- all so she wouldn't be traced or recognized. It was always obvious to me that the murder was premeditated, making it ever more creepy and this was never even touched on in the film.Travis Alexander, despite targeting Jodi directly as a sociopath in text messages - continued to have sex with her anyway. While that is not a crime and he does not deserve to be murdered for it - this should serve as a cautionary tale for anyone, man or woman who becomes resided to the fact that a romantic interest, friend or even family member is a sociopath. When you are sure of this - you must never confront them. Keep it to yourself and get as far away as possible. Make excuses and play a game, but do not let them close to you anymore. You've been warned from the second you know they're a sociopath. It never ends well. In my own personal experience, once sociopaths know they've lost, they are like animals who are out for the kill and will not rest until they either have control of you or they have done whatever they can to destroy you. When Travis became aware of her evil, under no circumstances did he have any business letting her through his door ever again. As I said before -- yes, Jodi is a sociopath. She will do whatever it takes to get what she wants, lying all the way through. Any tears she sheds is because she got caught. I wasn't expecting the film to go thoroughly into her psyche -- but I would have liked it if there was more emphasis on a lesson to take stalking very seriously. When a woman is stalked - films generally push how dangerous that is, but I didn't see that here. Perhaps it is a double standard since Travis was a male. Keyword: was. Had he gotten totally away from Jodi, perhaps he'd still be alive. But you don't get away from a sociopath by letting them back in your home at 4 am and having sex with them all day long.

'Fatal Attraction' is an old story. Few cases have been chronicled, the most well known being Carolyn Warmus in the early 1990's. It too was in the national limelight, she was found guilty of murder, and not one but two movies were made telling the story. But as we know, the Jodi Arias story was more compelling because of the unexpected, lurid details of their deviant personal sanctum. No court case has ever presented to the public what should be rated X. All in all, "Dirty Little Secret" does the best it can do. There were only two people who could tell the real story, but one is dead and the other is a chronic liar. I'm sure there are many who will agree that Jodi Arias is a better actress than the woman who played her in this film. Thus there is no way a film can portray this story with pure accuracy. 'Artistic license' is unavoidable, and why this film struck me as an attempt to stay as close to what the producers knew at the time it was filmed. "Dirty Little Secret" may have its faults, but it's definitely worth seeing.