Jazmin cole 

Social Media Manager

One of the most well-known African American directors is Tyler Perry, who not only is a director but is also an actor, writer, playwright, producer, and comedian.

Perry is mostly known for his most famous character Madea who is a hilariously aggressive elderly woman played by none other than Perry, himself in all the films and plays.

However, last year Perry announced he would retire his ‘Madea’ character after a 20-year run that started in 1999.

Although Madea is over and Perry hung up his wig, he joined the ever-growing Netflix family with the release of his Netflix original movie “A Fall from Grace” (2020).

As a thriller, “A Fall from Grace,” is a step up from Perry’s usual genre films of comedy and drama.

This film is fairly interesting as it follows a young lawyer, Jasmine Bryant (Bresha Webb) who is working as a public defender who has quite the reputation among people in her local prison as the “Plea Deal Lady.”

She barely tries any of the cases she is assigned to and specializes in getting plea deals for the people she is supposed to defend and the case she is assigned to in the film is a high media case of an older woman, Grace Waters (Crystal Fox) who is accused of allegedly murdering her husband.

As Jasmine Bryant meets with Grace to get her to take a plea deal; Jasmine gets the feeling that not everything about Grace’s case is right and something is off.

In a few sessions of meeting, Grace discloses everything to Jasmine about her second marriage to the younger man she is now in jail for allegedly killing, which leads Jasmine to do what no one expects her to—take Grace’s case to trial.

Perry had a noteworthy cast for the film with iconic actresses like Phylicia Rashad who most people would recognize her as Claire Huxtable from “The Cosby Show” (1984-1992), Cicely Tyson who at the age of 95, proved that age is just a number and she’s still got it and of course, it would not be a Tyler Perry movie if he did not write a role for himself to star in.

At first, what drew me to the film was the fact that it was a Tyler Perry film. Growing up, most African American households know all about Perry, his plays, Madea films, and his dramas and television shows like “For Colored Girls” (2010) and “Tyler Perry’s House of Payne” (2007-2012).  

However, what really gave me the push to watch the film was all the mixed reactions (and memes about a wig) posted by everyone on Twitter after they watched the film.

Some people believed “A Fall from Grace” was interesting and quite good while others believed that the film was too farfetched and just ridiculous, and honestly, both reactions are completely valid and understandable.

Throughout most of the two hours of the film, I can honestly say that I was intrigued and when the plot thickened and events of the film started to hit the fan, I was on the edge of my seat and found myself yelling at my computer screen.

One particular scene, (you’ll know exactly which one if you watch) was so outrageous that I was in tears from laughter and ranting about what I would have done and what would have gone down if it were me.

However, the film was missing a few elements that would have made it a real thrill as it was weird and creepy rather than thrilling when the truth was revealed, as it turned out that most of the events happened because of a con artist’s schemes for money which is not uncovered until the last few minutes of the movie.

It was still quite captivating as it held my attention until the end, and I think it is worth a watch for a good laugh if nothing else. Also, it did leave one lesson unmistakably clear—never be too trusting.

There are a lot of people in the world that are wolves in sheep’s wool. No one can ever know anyone’s true intentions, but even so, it is important to be cautious of people because you never know what they are capable of.

Email Jazmin at: 

jcole17@live.esu.edu