STAR RATING: ***** Brilliant **** Very Good *** Okay ** Poor * Awful
Mea (Kelly Rowland) is a Defence Attorney, who's having relationship counselling with her partner, Kai (Sean Sagar), as they're going through a rough patch. Things are further complicated when she agrees to defend Zyair (Trevante Rhodes), an artist accused of his girlfriend's murder, who Kai's State Prosecutor brother, Ray (Nick Sagar) wants to bring down. As Mea puts everything on the line so as not to be pushed around, she is drawn into Zyair's alternate world, and finds herself embroiled in a twisted path of discovery, on a collision course with the truth behind the case.
This latest offering from the much lambasted writer/director Tyler Perry, arrived on Netflix without much in the way of fanfare or publicity, but did manage to make it to number two on the top ten films list. But then just as soon it's gone and done that, it's been the recipient of some of the harshest, worst reviews imaginable, and led to insinuation Perry shouldn't be allowed to work alone with his own project again. Its main aim seems to be to resurrect the 'erotic thriller', which has lain dormant for some time. Well, you can't blame it for trying.
In the lead role, Kelly Rowland gets a chance to flex her acting skills, aiming to prove herself a multi-talented performer after her singing career, and she does develop something of a chemistry with co star Rhodes, who individually has a fairly magnetic charisma of his own, but together their love scenes are blandly unerotic, and there is not much in the way of any sexual tension. While the story has some flicker of intrigue, in the third act, it all descends into complete absurdity, and so any effective pay-off is completely null and void.
Apparently, the name Tyler Perry should have sent alarm bells ringing before I even fixed my eyes on this piece, but in lieu of anything else I gave it a chance. My end reaction is to find the whole thing as perplexing as the title. **
Mea (Kelly Rowland) is a Defence Attorney, who's having relationship counselling with her partner, Kai (Sean Sagar), as they're going through a rough patch. Things are further complicated when she agrees to defend Zyair (Trevante Rhodes), an artist accused of his girlfriend's murder, who Kai's State Prosecutor brother, Ray (Nick Sagar) wants to bring down. As Mea puts everything on the line so as not to be pushed around, she is drawn into Zyair's alternate world, and finds herself embroiled in a twisted path of discovery, on a collision course with the truth behind the case.
This latest offering from the much lambasted writer/director Tyler Perry, arrived on Netflix without much in the way of fanfare or publicity, but did manage to make it to number two on the top ten films list. But then just as soon it's gone and done that, it's been the recipient of some of the harshest, worst reviews imaginable, and led to insinuation Perry shouldn't be allowed to work alone with his own project again. Its main aim seems to be to resurrect the 'erotic thriller', which has lain dormant for some time. Well, you can't blame it for trying.
In the lead role, Kelly Rowland gets a chance to flex her acting skills, aiming to prove herself a multi-talented performer after her singing career, and she does develop something of a chemistry with co star Rhodes, who individually has a fairly magnetic charisma of his own, but together their love scenes are blandly unerotic, and there is not much in the way of any sexual tension. While the story has some flicker of intrigue, in the third act, it all descends into complete absurdity, and so any effective pay-off is completely null and void.
Apparently, the name Tyler Perry should have sent alarm bells ringing before I even fixed my eyes on this piece, but in lieu of anything else I gave it a chance. My end reaction is to find the whole thing as perplexing as the title. **