We know January can sometimes be the dumping ground of bad movies, but also some wonderful surprises can come this time of year as well.
Brazen is a new mystery on Netflix based on the prolific mystery writer Nora Roberts novels. So who’s up for some intrigue?
Brazen (2022) Review
A prominent mystery writer and crime expert, Grace hurries back to her family home when her estranged sister summons her.
When her sister is killed and her double life as a webcam performer is revealed, Grace ignores the warnings of a cool-headed Detective and gets involved in the case.
This stars Alyssa Milano as Grace, a mystery writer whose works to solve her sister’s murder. That’s the premise of the whole thing.
I was going to try and be all coy about how good this movie possibly is, but really, it’s just terrible.
But why? You may ask. So we have a premise of this woman who’s living a double life. One is a teacher and then the other as a Camgirl. That premise has potential.
Double lives, mean intrigue, secrets, and deception. Then when you combine that with murder and several potential suspects, the intrigue can create good suspense and possibly misdirection.
Now here the killer is obvious from about twelve minutes in, when we first see them. I mean, I went throughout the rest of the movie hoping that it couldn’t have been that blatant, but sure enough, it was.
The look of the production feels very Hallmark, which I don’t always consider a negative, but because this involves a Cam girl, the content alone ventures towards the edgy. But the film doesn’t take advantage of that, even with just a grittier film grain or darker tones.
No, I don’t need to see the Cam girls performing sex acts to be edgy, but every scene we get in this movie is sanitized. Like it was the edited for TV version of a late-night movie, and it’s incredibly bright, giving off this lighthearted feeling.
The acting is uncomfortably stiff and the dialogue is unintentionally hilariously unnatural. There were more than a few times where we rewound the scene because the line delivery was so out of place and we just wanted to laugh at it again.
Some of the time, it’s like the director said action, and the actor wasn’t necessarily ready or was just a bit too anxious and then just blurted out their lines.
Some of the characters are brooding in an attempt to be mysterious, but the dialogue has other characters than crowding them, which creates something that is not mysterious or suspenseful.
The story also attempts to introduce a romantic angle that ends up being way too forced and unbelievable. And I don’t want a sweeping romance here, but what we get are awkward exchanges that just add unnecessary time to a movie that’s entirely way too long already.
And this is 96 minutes and it feels like it goes on for 126 minutes. And it’s weird because the pace actually feels way too fast.
The mystery doesn’t breathe or sit with an idea that could cause doubt or suspicion. Instead, it resolves an issue in the very next scene.
Now, the story tries to cast suspicion on at least five different suspects, but boasts are dismissed or forgotten about almost as quickly as the focus is placed on them.
Why would you do that in a supposed mystery?
For a mystery to really work, we need to have the doubt that’s instilled to just play out through many of the sequences, allowing us to try and work out the different scenarios.
Something extremely laughable in. This is the way that Alyssa Milano’s character Grace is able to insert herself into the murder investigation.
The dialogue exchange that serves as the justification is silly and unbelievable, but it fits perfectly with everything else the movie attempts, so at least it’s consistent.
I wonder sometimes if the actors know this is going to be bad or if it just ends up that way. It’s unfortunate that with the potential this story contains all the mystery, urgency, tension, or anxiety they’re just not present.
And our characters vacillate from being intense with each other to appearing emotionally fragile to looking like they forgot their line, so they just Pat their fellow actor on the shoulder. Instead of speaking.
These changes happen so rapidly, the emotions come across as disjointed and then insincere. Now I hate trashing on movies just to trash on them because I don’t think that’s productive. I really do try to find the best in something, even if it’s complete poo.
So like I mentioned, one of the things that I like about this story is the potential that it held. I do believe there is a compelling mystery that could be built here.
Now, I’ve not read the novel that this is based on, but my guess is that there’s something that was lost in translation as this was then adapted for the screen.
Now the absolute best thing about this entire movie is Malachi wears hair. This dude has a spectacular head of hair. I look forward to seeing him as the story went along.
When the movie arrives at the climax, I so wanted it to be tense or at least mildly exciting, but every beat is telegraphed way in advance.
When the supposed mystery is resolved, even though it was very obvious from the start of the movie, the movie then does a fade to black and then comes back up to a bright and cheery scene that’s meant to leave us with smiles on our faces.
But if you’ve sat through the drivel of the story, I think the only thing that’s going to bring a smile to your face is that the credits begin to roll, signaling the movie is done.
So if you can’t tell this movie is not worth your time, the mystery is way too obvious, the acting is stilted and the dialogue is completely unnatural.
I was bummed that this turned out to be such a poor movie because I love mysteries, even if they’re cheesy. And I watch the crap so that you don’t have to.
There’s a tiny bit of sex. There’s no nudity, some profanity, and a bunch of violence.
I want to give Brazen 0/5, but I’m going to give it o.5/5. And that’s just because Malachi wears hair is so awesome.
So what are you watching right now? It’s got to be better than this movie. Let me know in the comments below.
Guys thank you so much as always for reading the review of Brazen (2022). See you next time.
Brazen (2022) Trailer
Here is the trailer of Brazen (2022).
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