Mea Culpa

Tyler Perry's always been very short on subtlety with his directing/writing to me. He continues to grow as a filmmaker but in small steps rather than leaps and bounds. With his most recent effort, he still shows the bad habit of writing paper thin characters and rather perplexing plotlines. The plot twist can be felt coming for some because of this fact. The direction is so-so, as he lets some scenes go on for too long and spends an excess of screentime attempting to build anxiousness with viewers with time that could be used in a more effective manner to build depth on both character and narrative. The acting is solid from all players, though there's no particularly strong chemistry between any. Production value decent as well, everyone looks good, the film is shot well, decent score to build tension for some scenes. Overall, it's not a film of zero charm but doesn't have enough in freshness, style or accomplishment to make it recommended viewing.

This movie is dull and put on. It has the feel of a Lifetime movie but less interesting. Kelly Rowland plays a supposed tough Chicago lawyer but her character doesn't translate the grit or depth that a tough lawyer character should have. She has only one note and an expressionless face. The only expression that helps her is when she smiles which she should play more roles that would allow that. And the lead actor.... Ug! He's terrible! He can't deliver a line to save his life! He doesn't come off like an artist at all, he comes off like a professional athlete attempting to deliver a line like a cheesy commercial. I lost interest way early on. The characters are all dimensionless, vapid and predictable. The story could have been better with the right actors and director but this one is awful. I'm going to try and finish it but I'm not interested enough to do so.

The poster and preview of this movie make it seem like a decent drama.

As Law and Order fans I thought it'd be a good crime/trial by jury type of movie but it turned into a mix of so many other genres which makes it seem like the movie is trying to hard.

There are some parts which work and you sort of want to know what happens.

When it starts to drag a bit the movie just goes next level in the last 15 minutes and changes pace complelety.

There is also some weird components of this movie that are given no explanation whatsoever.

Like why does an Irish red head have two black sons?

It's not law and order its like Unforgiven with an un satisfying result.

I don't even know where to begin with this one. Right off the bat, the dialogue is ridiculous. Like, comically ridiculous. Within the first 15 minutes, I had to double check that this wasn't supposed to be a parody of thrillers. Like, how could someone write this and not intend it to be satirical? There's an evil mother in law that's so over the top, I'm convinced the writers just went to ChatGPT and asked it to write stereotypes. Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if this entire script was AI-generated.

The movie is worsened by unnecessary sex scenes and bad acting. Is it supposed to be an erotic thriller or a murder mystery? Pick one and do it well, don't try to do both and fail. The romantic male lead is such a bad actor, I was laughing at some of his line deliveries. Honestly the best thing about this movie was the mystery element, which was painfully predictable and trite. I gave it a two cause I guess it could be worse?

This is yet another thriller with extremely stupid characters doing extremely stupid things. It is impossible for me to empathize with complete idiots who get involved in a dangerous and immoral sexual relationship with their client, without any proof of his innocence. The plot is just too forced, just not plausible. The film has no rhythm, no surprises, no emotion. The actors are soulless and have no chemistry, and the dialogues are banal, nearly comical. The ending is illogical. Did't appreciate it at all, I found a direction that was unable to involve me in the story that the screenplay wanted to tell.