Yahoo Movies Tyler Perry's Netflix thriller A Fall From Grace review
Tyler Perry is perhaps best known in the United States for creating and acting as Madea, a tough-talking older African-American woman, in eleven slapstick comedies. But beyond that, he is also a producer, director and comedian.
His filmmaking techniques have varied over the years, and now he's landed on Netflix's tried-and-true, trope-laden thriller: A Fall From Grace.
The movie could have been relevant and haunting: an older woman is swindled by a handsome young man who quickly reveals himself to be wooing her for some long-con involving her wealth. It should have been a movie about how vulnerable it is to be a single woman, especially over 50.
Unfortunately, the script isn't meaty enough, nor authentic enough, to explore that theme. Perry revealed he wrote the script alone, and it truly shows. There's no apparent understanding of what it means to be a vulnerable and a woman, especially a woman who is ageing alone, a position that – given the inequities of life – is presumably even harder for black women.
Grace (Crystal R Fox) recites her story to floundering defence attorney Jasmine (Bresha Webb) with all the nuance of a neon sign. Big bad Shannon (Mehcad Brooks) is so comically villainous, even as he woos Grace, that even though you know you should feel empathy for Grace, it's hard to with all the red flags he's been waving in her face.
Perry can't seem to choose between showing us what happened or telling us. Grace narrates the most awful moments of her life while we watch them. A Fall From Grace uses the more-is-more tactic which we love when it comes to things like chocolate or fettucini alfredo, not filmmaking.
Grace's voiceover follows her as she follows Shannon around the house, making the dialogue convoluted and overwhelming. In one scene, she literally repeats the words her 'past' self is saying at the same time. Why? We can hear you already!
And then there's Jasmine, perhaps the worst lawyer in history – and everyone knows it. It's horrible to listen to her friends and bosses repeatedly tell her that she's only good for plea deals but the truth is they're right, she is terrible.
Perry could have done a lot more with the characters he created, given them dimension. Even villains have complexity, but here everyone is a cardboard cutout of their stereotype.
The SHOUTING OF EMOTIONAL LINES just makes you want to lower the volume, not pay attention. Either this was the direction, or the actors attempt to imbue their words with emotion they inherently lack.
Perry shot the movie in five days and found the time time to shoehorn in a criticism of millennials, but not to make his story make sense. #OkBoomer.
A Fall From Grace feels like a movie made by an alien who watched two episodes of Law and Order and thought he knew how the criminal justice system – and filmmaking – worked. DUN DUN. Scene change! New information! DUN DUN. Some shouting! Revelations! DUN DUN. Justice! Ending!
Oh, what could have been if this seed of an idea had been given to another filmmaker. We'll never know.
A Fall From Grace is now streaming on Netflix
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