A Fall from Grace

Jasmine Bryant, a public defender, takes the case of Grace Waters, accused of killing her husband. Grace appears to have admitted it, and once Jasmine starts digging she finds a fraud scheme aimed at elderly women and the part played in it by Grace's closest friend. Tyler Perry wrote and directed. It is his first film for Netflix and it also contains Cicely Tyson's final screen role. Its most discussed feature is the speed: the whole thing was shot in five days at Tyler Perry Studios. The result is visible on screen, and critics listed the continuity errors and technical oversights one by one. The reception was harsh. Rotten Tomatoes sits at 15 percent, the consensus saying that drama for drama's sake does not make a great movie. It was still watched by 26 million people in its first week. One line from it became an internet meme; Perry later explained that it was not in the script and that he had improvised it. Who it is for: viewers who like fast-consumed thrillers and Perry's melodramatic register. Who it is not for: anyone who notices craft. The marks of a five-day shoot are all over the film and nothing hides them.