Review: A fall from Grace (2020)

A Fall from Grace is a Netflix original movie.

Release Date: 17th January 2020

Genre: Thriller

Directed and Written By Tyler Perry

Running Time: 2 hours

Synopsis 

Disheartened since her ex-husband’s affair, Grace Waters feels restored by a new romance. But when secrets erode her short-lived joy, Grace’s vulnerable side turns violent. (IMDb).

Grace Waters was imprisoned for having murdered her husband, Shannon, to which she pleaded guilty to the charges. All she wanted was a prison closer to her son. The unexpected happened when the lawyer in charge of the case who was good at pleading cases convince her to go to court because she felt Grace was innocent. 

Characters

Crystal Fox as Grace Waters

Grace is a stout Christian who taught Sunday school and went to church religiously.  Divorced with a son, she seeks to have a companion and searches for happiness as her husband had moved on. In that search was her best friend Sarah who introduced her to a man (indirectly) who made her feel complete. A loving and caring person as she is, she would do anything not to bring her son or best friend for six years down alongside her. That included going to prison.

Bresha Webb as Jasmine

Jasmine is a novice yet impulsive lawyer who doesn’t lookout for the details which affects her during Grace’s Trial. As a lawyer, her believe of what the law was when she was a student and what the law is now, comes facing each other as she starts practising what she studied in school. In an effort not to try, she pleads her cases so they never reach court. Her first case to reach the court was Grace’s case, where Grace is accused of murder.

Phylicia Rashad as Sarah

Sarah happens to be the best friend of Grace. When in need, the first person Grace would reach out to is her. Having realised, her friends’ life as a divorcee was taking a troll on her, she advises her to find a man. Being the only friend of Grace, she testifies on behalf of Grace in court.

Sarah, in the beginning, was the kind of best friend everyone has or would like to have. Speaking and encouraging Grace to be a better person and telling her to believe in herself. A change in her behaviour and attitude is however seen when the movie comes to a close.

Mehcad Brooks as Shannon

Shannon married Grace after meeting her at an art exhibition. He was everything Grace could dream of before their marriage. After their marriage, he became everything Grace dreamt he wasn’t.

He was kind, loving, romantic, understanding and responsible towards Grace before their marriage and after he became authoritative, secretive, annoying and a cheat. (maybe he was always that way just that Grace never saw that).

Believed to have been murdered by his wife Grace, he went into hiding with the help of his mother. It was later revealed that he is the son of Sarah, Grace’s Best friend.

Opening Scene

The movie starts with an old woman trying to commit suicide and policemen trying to prevent that from taking place. This scene pulls me into the movie as I was curious to know what happened and why a woman as old as her wanted to end her life.

Main Relationships in the Movie

1. Monogamous Relationship: Every character in the movie practised this kind of marriage. Grace divorced her ex-husband because he cheated on her with his secretary which is not part of the rules in this kind of relationship. This was mainly because Grace was a Christian and the movie portrayed the values of Christianity. Jasmine and her husband were also in this kind of relationship.
2. Friendship: When betrayal kicks in friendship, all seems lost. Grace and Sarah were best friends of 6 years. The only thing Sarah wanted was Grace’s money. It was because of this she befriended her and also made her son approach her it that light. Grace was willing to go to prison to prevent her friend from going to the stand. That was how much she loved her although it was not reciprocated. Grace, however, did not know the Kind of person Sarah was until later in the movie.
3. Work Relationship: Work is work and for that matter, no matter how long you have been known at your workplace, you would lose it in a twinkle of an eye should need be. This was the story of grace who lost her job after it was discovered she had embezzled money. This was no different from Jasmine whose work was at stake should she lose her first case which her boss (played by Tyler Perry) vehemently disapproved of reaching court.

Performance Worth Watching

In my opinion, the performance worth watching would be where Shannon had the guts to bring another woman to his matrimonial home and sack his wife from that same room when caught. Oh, and yes, Grace hitting him with the bat was a relief to watch although unrealistic that he didn’t die at the end.

Closing Scene and expectation:

Grace was released from prison and Sarah going Scot free. she went to another home as a nurse for the aged after her escape from the police. It was open-ended for viewers to imagine and give their own part two imagination to it.

After all its part of the thriller Genre.

Places to Stream and Download: Netflix

The Drills Decision: A fall from Grace is a movie for women who need or want to affirm their hatred for men and how unfair the world is to them. People who believe every trouble has a solution or there would be light at the end of the tunnel can invest watching it.

Self-love and self-worth was a point emphasized in different ways throughout the movie. This can be seen where Grace was waiting for a man to complete her life which shouldn’t be so since loving oneself should be the goal. After all, we came individually and shall leave individually.

This movie was not the kind of thriller I expected it to be.  The voice-over sounded off. I mean, you can tell the difference between her present voice speaking to the lawyer and that which she used in remembering.

There were suspense and twist in the movie however, there were so many question marks.

• What did Sarah use all that money she extorted from the older women for?
• How did Shannon survive with that kind of injury and that too, only head injury? He was even pushed down the stairs
• How was Shannon able to steal like that in this technological age?
• Why did Grace keep all those women down the basement and feed them?

I will end it here since I can go on and on. There might be a part two which explains these but until then the movie was okay to me.

Rating:  6.0

Please refer to the Reviews page for rating explanation. Thank you.

Official Trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxLb3aLb5j4