Tyler Perry’s A Fall from Grace
More like Tyler Perry Wikipedias Law & Order.
Cast of Characters:
Grace Waters – Crystal Fox
Sarah – Phylicia Rashad
Jasmine Bryant – Bresha Webb
Shannon – Mechad Brooks
Alice – Cicely Tyson
Prosecutor Bradley Tankerton – Adrian Pasdar
Rory – Tyler Perry
Director – Tyler Perry
Screenplay – Tyler Perry
Producer – Will Areu, Mark E. Swinton & Tyler Perry
Not Rated
The Rundown: Virginian public defender Jasmine Bryant (Bresha Webb) has been given a new case by her boss Rory (Tyler Perry). Her job should be an easy one. All she needs is get Grace Waters (Crystal Fox), a woman accused of murdering her husband Shannon (Mechad Brooks), to agree to a plea deal. Nothing more. End of story. However, upon noticing that are few things are off about this case, Jasmine, the most inexperienced attorney in the history of attorneys, is convinced that Grace is innocent and is about to go Atticus Finch on everyone’s asses to prove it.
Or just make a fool of herself trying.
Pre-Release Buzz: Tyler Perry’s A Fall from Grace marks the filmmaker’s first film with Netflix, and the brain behind the Madea franchise reportedly shot his newest erotic thriller in only five days at his Atlanta studio. You might be thinking, “Hey, Netflix released Roma, which should have won Best Picture last year.” That is true, but they also released The Ridiculous 6, so any Netflix film has the potential to swing wildly in either direction.
The Good: I gotta hand it to both Crystal Fox and Phylicia Rashad. They came to play and are doing the best they can as they wade through Perry’s strenuously clunky dialogue. Fox, in her first lead role, brings a natural sense of warmth and vulnerability to Grace, and there is a nice, genuine rapport she shares with Rashad (who can provide a sharp stare and a line of sass better than anyone) during their few initial interactions with each other.
Even Tyler Perry himself proves once again that can he provide solid work as a dramatic actor, despite the bizarre makeup/wardrobe choices he makes for his character here (more on that later). Give this man a top-notch director and a good script, and he’s more than capable of bringing his A-game (e.g., David Fincher’s Gone Girl, of which Perry wasn’t just good in, he was fantastic).
The Bad: As already stated, this film was shot in five days, and good golly Miss Molly does it show. Of course, this comes at no surprise knowing Perry’s method of churning films out quickly one after the other like a cheap assembly line, so as it is with his other projects, you’ll find no surprises here, and at this point, the only way he can surprise me is if he delivers a film that is actually good.
It’s as if Perry was given the Iron Triangle Model: Fast, Good and Cheap to look over, was told to pick two of the three, picked fast and then said, “Yeah, I don’t really need the other two.”
So all the trademark “Perry-isms” are on display here in Tyler Perry’s A Fall from Grace. Clunky dialogue? Check. Melodramatic plot? Check. Tonal shifts that rock back and forth like a teeter-totter on jet fuel? Extras that don’t have the slightest clue as to what they’re doing (keep your eye on the old man at the diner)? Check. Wrapping the entire story up tidily while also somehow managing to still leave you with a million and one
And while both Fox and Rashad manage to escape this camp-fest relatively unscathed, the rest of the primary cast isn’t quite as lucky. Bresha Webb, in particular, is saddled with playing the world’s worst attorney, a young, determined go-getter who’s legal intellect is so appallingly lacking she’d be hard pressed to solve a Highlights magazine crossword puzzle, much less a murder case.
“You’ve heard the prosecution assert that there is evidence to prove that she (her client) is guilty. Well, we want you to know that that same evidence will prove that she is not guilty.” – Jasmine Bryant, world’s worst attorney
Jasmine’s utter incompetence is only matched by her husband, played by Matthew Law, who’s every bit as clueless as a cop as she is a lawyer.
Oh my God, look out for that bag of groceries they’re throwing at you!!!!
But the real MVP of camp here is none other than Mechad Brooks, whose setting says present day, while his hair loudly screams 1988. Brooks’s Shannon is meant to be cruel and abusive, but he’s so lightweight it’s adorable. Watching him go for broke as he screams, “ASHTRAY, BITCH!!” is sure to elicit laughs more than gasps.
The Ugly: Perry’s never been known for subtlety, but in a mid-film move that screams, “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet!”, he cranks it to eleven… thousand. Now, out of respect for Perry ’cause I personal have nothing against him, I won’t spoil the big twist. Sure, even a monkey could put two and two together early on in the film, but he posted a video requesting that everyone not spoil the twist, so I’ll give him at that.
It’s the least I can do for trashing his movie.
I’ll just say that the entire third-act, not just the twist, takes what is already a melodramatic film and kicks it into hyperdrive, as if Perry told Chewbacca to “Punch it!”, then blasted this film right the fuck off into levels of dramatic hysteria that would make even Lifetime chuckle in derision. And, quite frankly, it is a glorious thing to witness. You think an over the shoulder shot of the judge reading his script – his actual script – is bad, and, believe me, it’s Plan 9 from Outer Space levels of bad, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The courtroom proceedings play out like a junior high talent show reenactment of Law & Order. The dialogue heard throughout that trial more than suggests that during his time writing this, Perry simply Googled “How do lawyers talk?”, and then went with the first handful of phrases that Yahoo Answers was able to give to him.
The cherry on top of this banana shit sundae is a back-and-forth argument between the judge and Bresha Webb’s defense attorney that is so juvenile it might as well have been the two just screaming at each other, “Am not!!” “Are too!!” “AM NOT!!!!” “ARE TOO!!!!!!!!”
And to think I haven’t yet gotten to the twist yet, which, again, I will not spoil for you. All I’ll say is that its absolute bug-fuckery and nuttiness goes off the charts when it’s revealed.
Speaking of absolute bug-fuckery, Tyler Perry – c’mon, man, this is 2020. We have made so many advancements with film technology, special effects, makeup and production design… and the best you could come up with for both your and Mechad Brooks’s wigs is some stanky-ass looking wool you sheared off some poor black sheep and perched on top your heads?
Yep, this is what five days of shooting gets you.
Oddly enough, this might end up being the worst film of 2020 that I actual recommend you see.
Consensus: More melodramatic than a telenovela pumped up on steroids and suffering from a severe case of the stupids, Tyler Perry’s A Fall from Grace just might be one of the funniest films you see all this year, even if that most definitely was not Perry’s intention.
Silver Screen Fanatic’s Verdict: I give Tyler Perry’s A Fall from Grace a D- (½★).
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