For years now, Tyler Perry has been criticised for his movies, storytelling and seemingly monotonous plots. But there seems to be a sizable audience for his content and his recently launched mega studio lot is proof that that audience is also ready to pay for that content. I wouldn’t say I’m a fan of Tyler Perry’s but I do like the Madea character a lot and his success, I think, is necessary. If not for anything, as a representation of black power, pride and ability. But I was also aware of a dearth of deep-rooted and complex characters in most of his work.
So with this in mind, I watched his latest movie (and his first feature release shot at his new studio lot) on Netflix: A Fall from Grace.
To be honest, it’s not a bad movie. It just about makes it right on the average line but it obviously could have been a much better piece of art with just a little more effort. That’s why you shouldn’t see it. It felt like a very aromatic soup that tasted like the cook didn’t put enough salt. It could have been so much better than it was.
Right from the first scene, the movie is a whirlwind of sometimes great acting, sometimes really bad acting. Throughout the entire movie there is a plethora of inconsistencies. From make up, to costume and the storyline of the movie. The movie does a very feeble job of showing the protagonist Grace Waters (played by Crystal Fox), a recently divorced older woman who falls in love and marries a younger man – Shannon, in any other light than gullible, desperate and criminal.
After catching her husband in bed with his secretary (not played out at all), Grace struggles with loneliness despite having a great job and a great life (by all accounts of the movie, at least). Then she meets a younger man, falls in love and marries him. Then she finds out that he used her passwords to steal money from her job and put a mortgage on her already paid for house. When she confronts him, he quotes “the law of the state” (the movie doesn’t say which state) which apparently gives him the right to do the things he has done. To make this movie even more intellectually disrespectful, Shannon decides that it’s a good idea to smoke doobies all over the house and fuck other women in Grace’s house. None of this makes much sense and it only gets worse.
Her lawyer Jasmin Bryant, a rookie public defender, for some reason (which the movie never explains) believes that even though her client, Grace, hit her husband several times on the head with a baseball bat and threw his unconscious body down a flight of stairs, she is innocent. This rookie lawyer then goes on to fumble in court but still somehow ends up discovering a 25-year crime ring run by Shannon and his mother Sarah, who is also Grace’s best friend. This might as well be a Nollywood movie.
I could go on and on but I think you get the point now. This movie was not made for critical viewing but strictly mindless entertainment. Its Rotten Tomatoes rating is 36%, Metacritic 33% and on IMDb it gets a 6/10 score. Unlike the rest of Tyler Perry’s work, there is no comedic element (Madea) or powerful performance (like Angela Bassett in Meet the Browns) to counter the endless plot holes and unconvincing wigs in this movie. Save yourself. Don’t do it.