Jennie Garth will not be ignored in An Unfinished Affair.

Here we go again with Tim Matheson and adultery. Having learned nothing from all the rampant infidelity that claimed no fewer than three lives in The Woman Who Sinned, his Alex Connor in An Unfinished Affair (1996) didn’t just mess around on any wife, he cheated on a woman dying of cancer. His biggest mistake is also his greatest joy: she miraculously, as he calls it, recovered.

“I know I need to put on some more weight, but at least I didn’t lose my hair,” Cynthia (Leigh Taylor-Young) sheepishly tells him during one of their scenes of domestic idyll. He couldn’t be happier to have his wife back and has even decided to give up a teaching side gig to rededicate himself to marriage. Pleased, Cynthia admits, “I know it’s selfish but I want you all to myself.”

Tim Matheson is keeping some painful secrets from Leigh Taylor-Young in An Unfinished Affair.

Does it make a ton of sense why he chose to scratch the teaching itch during the time he was most convinced his wife’s death was imminent? Of course not. But this is an exceptionally lazy screenplay (credited to Rama Laurie Stanger, later of Lifetime’s House of Versace, and Dan Witt) in need of a way to introduce the other woman, Sheila Hart (Jennie Garth), a graphic designer who took his class.

What is there to say about Sheila? She is Canadian. She was abandoned by her father, which is TV movie shorthand for bunny boiler. We have no idea what drew her to Alex, or why she took his class to begin with when he feels she’s more than qualified to teach it (and indeed recommends her as his replacement). The timeline of their relationship is unclear: Cynthia was near-death for a year but Alex, despite framing the affair as a coping mechanism, claims it lasted only one month.

Jennie Garth wants to make Tim Matheson suffer in An Unfinished Affair.

“Look, I love my wife,” he tells her during one of their many contentious exchanges about the matter. “My family is the most important thing in the world to me. I told you that.” It is unsurprising, then, when she uses this knowledge against him. In a twist from the pages of many a prior TV movie, including Judith Light and Jack Wagner’s Lady Killer, Sheila decides to exact her revenge by reinserting herself into Alex’s life by dating his son, Rick (Peter Facinelli).

Rick, the self-described black sheep of a wealthy, accomplished family, is working for his father (and grandfather) again after a temporary exile. As he explains to Sheila on a lunch date, “I used to drink. A lot. And I always had a pretty bad temper.” One night, while soused, he found his fiancée in bed with his roommate. “I waited politely for him to put on his clothes, then I put him in the hospital for six weeks. I hear he still walks with a limp.” Sheila listens with fascination and responds “He had it coming.”

“I’ll show you who sleeps with danger…”

It’s easy to see where this is going, but harder to figure out why we’re supposed to care. Who knew there was a Beverly Hills, 90210 actress less capable of carrying a bad telefilm than Tori Spelling?! Garth neither commands nor maintains attention: she is a near-total nonentity. Vacuous Sheila’s fundamental incompetence — you could find more convincing villains in children’s cartoons — engenders no suspense.

Faring better are Matheson and Facinelli (pretty enough at the start of his career for even a cranky lesbian to nod approvingly), believable as a father and son still regaining their footing after Rick’s run-in with the law and Cynthia’s illness. Facinelli imbues Rick with a decency his father lacks, and Matheson can play these roles in his sleep. Though, if you’re like me, you’ll still want to knee Alex in the balls when he pleads with his wife “You said you thought you’d been given a gift. A new life. Give me that chance.”

That second image is destined to appear in some unsavory Google image searches.

Streaming and DVD availability

An Unfinished Affair is available on DVD, and you can currently stream it for free (with ads) via Tubi.

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… But wait, there’s more!

Costars Garth and Facinelli, who exchange no small amount of saliva in this film, famously ended up married (and later divorced) in real-life. In 2011 she even starred in a TV movie he co-wrote, Accidentally in Love, which is streaming on a subscription service called UP Faith & Family. It sounds (and looks) terrible, so who knows, maybe I’ll review it! If it was good enough for Fred Willard, it’s good enough for me.