Film / The Madam of Purity Falls

Hopefully there's some sort of waterfall somewhere in town, because the "Purity" part sure ain't true.

The Madam of Purity Falls (filmed as simply Purity Falls) is a 2019 Lifetime Movie of the Week Thriller directed by Sam Irvin.

Nicole Johnson (Kristanna Loken) has just suffered through the sudden death of her husband. Along with her 18-year-old son Jason (Trevor Stines of Riverdale) and slightly younger daughter Justine (Sloane Avery) she moves to the idyllic-sounding Purity Falls to start over. Among the first things they encounter when they move in are a shirtless, well-toned young man doing yardwork and Courtney McQueen (Olivia d'Abo), their personable, sophisticated neighbor who runs a landscaping business and takes immediate interest in Jason. Looking for extra money, Jason takes up of Courtney's offer to start working for her, but when he's sent out for a job at the house of saucy housewife Karen Reed (Beth Broderick), he learns the shocking secret of Purity Falls: Courtney's "landscaping business" is a front for a prostitution ring with a bunch of nubile young men, who service the town's older women. He tries to quit, but Courtney has ways to lure him back in. Meanwhile, Nicole notices some changes in her son.

The Tropes of Purity Falls:

• Actor Allusion:
  • Apparently a coincidence, but given that Trevor Stines is best-known for playing a character named Jason, his portrayal of Jason Johnson counts.
  • Also possibly the case in having Olivia d'Abo tangle with a character named Nicole, since d'Abo had a recurring role on Law & Order: Criminal Intent as archvillainess Nicole Wallace.
• The Alcoholic: Karen, who always comes across a bit soused in her scenes.
• Almost Dead Guy: In the film's peak bit of Melodrama, Benjamin strangles Karen but she manages to shoot him, and he crawls back to Courtney's house, where they get into a big argument before he expires.
• Awful Wedded Life: Drunken Karen and her hotheaded hubby are on the verge of divorce.
• Blackmail Backfire: Karen, needing money after her divorce, threatens to expose Courtney if she doesn't pay her $100,000. Benjamin delivers an envelope to her, but the money's fake and he kills her.
• Bondage Is Bad: In the climax Jason has been hired by the mayor of Purity Falls to do a threesome with him and his wife, and when Trevor goes to Courtney's bedroom to find her photo album full of her employees' pics, he sees a ball gag, handcuffs and a whip on the bed, which makes him shudder.
• Brainless Beauty: Jason is kinda dense. Exhibit A: He goes to his neighbor Courtney to ask for a job, knowing that a bunch of hunky male classmates work for her. She asks "so, you like older women?", then they have hot sex. And yet, Jason is totally stunned and confused when Karen makes a move on him on his first "job".
• Chekhov's Gun: Not even Anton Chekhov himself was ever this blatant about this trope. When they unpack at their Purity Falls house at the beginning, Jason takes out his dad's old hunting rifle and Justine freaks out about him bringing a gun to their house. Will the gun pop up again at a crucial moment later on? Yes, in the most unsubtle way possible: Justine uses it to kill Courtney and rescue Jason. And once was not enough for this movie: the gun that Mr. Reed keeps hidden is later used by Karen to mortally wound Benjamin.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: Karen's husband, who shows up in the locker room to threaten Daniel. Jason has a near run-in with him as well.
• Disposable Sex Worker: Chad is murdered at the start of the film. Later it's revealed that he broke away from Courtney and was doing freelance prostitution.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Cheerfully amoral Courtney is horrified when she learns that, in his role as her enforcer, her rent boy Benjamin has gone Ax-Crazy, threatening Jason and killing Chad and Karen to protect Courtney.
• Female Gaze: Given that this movie centers around a bunch of young men and their sexual encounters with older women, and the guys get lots of Fanservice opportunities, this is the order of the day.
• Genre Deconstruction: A Lifetime movie in which a young, attractive person naively gets a job that turns out to be prostitution, but reluctantly sticks with it to help out their struggling family, all while appearing in various states of undress. There are literally hundreds of those. But this movie makes the protagonist a boy instead of a girl, and that switch immediately puts it into self-aware territory. Was it originally a bog standard Lifetime script about an innocent girl who becomes a prostitute, then they decided to switch genders for the novelty value? Or was it originally gay porn that got sanitized and reworked?
• Go-Karting with Bowser: Nicole and Courtney become good friends, with Nicole unaware that Courtney is prostituting her son.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Nicole, her daughter Justine, and Jason's love interest Clara are all blonde and are the most morally-upright characters, contrasting with the other blonde women in the story: evil exploiter Courtney and depraved whoremongers Karen and Tiffany.
• Idiot Ball: Courtney probably should've doublechecked to make sure Jason knew that he'd been hired as a sex worker before sending him out to visit Karen for the first time.
• Ironic Name: Purity Falls. Had she been more Genre Savvy, Nicole might've recognized this and stayed the hell away.
• Leg Focus: Justine wears shorts or cutoffs that highlight her legs in almost all her scenes.
• Likes Older Women: Basically a requirement to work for Courtney. She flat out asks Jason if he likes older women when she seduces him.
• Little Sister Heroine: Justine disappears from the movie for long stretches, but makes up for it with a Big Damn Heroes moment at the end where she saves her mother and brother.
• Love Makes You Dumb: Wrestling groupie Clara gets all moony and coy over Jason, but drops him like a hot potato after hearing rumors about what kind of business Courtney runs.
• Mrs. Robinson:
  • Purity Falls is a whole town full of older women who are willing to pay for the privilege of seducing barely legal hot guys.
  • In particular Courtney, who seduces Jason into working for her, and presumably used the same recruiting tactics on her other employees.
• Pyrrhic Victory: Benjamin kills Karen, but she mortally wounds him with a gunshot before she dies.
• Questionable Consent: Courtney's seduction of Jason, which kicks off his involvement with her "landscaping service", is only a couple of short steps away from female-on-male rape. They're alone, she plies him with alcohol, then uses a staged-looking "spilling" of her wine as an excuse to strip down to lingerie, and immediately changes an innocent conversation's subject to sex, practically forcing Jason to escalate things.
• Sacrificial Lamb: Mr. Johnson and Chad, whose deaths (one accidental, the other murder) kick off the story.
• Sacrificial Lion: Karen Reed, murdered by Benjamin.
• Shirtless Scene: This is practically Shirtless: The Movie. Jason and Courtney's other employees spend most of the movie without shirts, displaying some finely-chiseled abs.
• Spoiler Title: So, there's a madam in Purity Falls. However, given that this is Lifetime, there's a bit of a shock when it turns out that, instead of the attractive single mom or her equally attractive daughter, it's her son who ends up working for the madam.
• Theme Naming: Nicole's two kids are named Jason Johnson and Justine Johnson. Also, is a brother and sister pair named Jason and Justine a coincidence?
• Toxic Friend Influence: Jason's new school buddy Daniel recruits him to the wrestling team, then enthusiastically suggests that he go to work for Courtney, thus introducing Jason to the world of prostitution.
• Unexplained Accent: Courtney shares the British accent of her portrayer Olivia d'Abo, but the story never gives a reason why.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Courtney is regarded in town as an upstanding self-made business mogul, even getting a civic award at one point. Her clients include a judge and the town's mayor.