If you haven’t watched Tyler Perry’s movie “A Fall From Grace” on Netflix and plan to, stop reading this now, because we’re moving into peak spoilerdom from here on in.  If you have watched it, you either heard of or saw the horrible wigs, the extras giving the main characters the side eye or staring directly into the camera and of course, old man drinking his glass of air during the diner scene.  Go on Google and enjoy.

You probably know that Tyler Perry boasted about his work ethic early in January on Instagram by declaring that he does all his writing himself and does not see the benefit of having a writer’s room and of course, that this movie was shot in five days.

What you may not know is that his 330 acre lot in Atlanta, Georgia was used to shoot Black Panther and The Walking Dead and that it is bigger than Disney, Warner Bros. and Paramount’s Studios combined.  He is also well known as an employer of many many black actors and actresses who may not have the opportunities to work on other big-name projects.  These things are all commendable.

However, how on earth are you talking about building your own table when you give very few of the people you claim to support, if any at all, a seat at the same table?  How is your craft, movie making for your own movies, not improving but getting worse?  I thought Acrimony was terrible in so many ways (poor storytelling, unbelievably bad CGI and low-budget acting) and didn’t think it could get worse but it did with A Fall From Grace.  You want to tell a movie from a woman’s point of view? Hire women to help you write your story.  You want to include courtroom and legal drama?  Seek the assistance of someone in the legal profession.  Have someone look at continuity errors in your production, there were sooo many.  We want quality work, plain and simple and he has the resources, so why not?  He has to be playing us, he can’t be serious.

Some thoughts in no particular order:

1. How were Shannon and Sarah’s crimes not uncovered for twenty-five years?  Did no one look for all those women tied up in the basement?  How were mother and son never recognised?

2. How the hell old was Shannon if he was working with Sarah for so many years marrying/duping older women and stealing their social security numbers?  Did he start at fifteen?

3. How was Grace charged with murder without a body?

4. How did Shannon survive the beating and being thrown down the stairs and only ended up with two black eyes and a bandage on his head?

5. How did Jordan not recognise Sarah’s house as the house where the actual Shannon (old lady from the beginning) committed suicide?

6. Did Grace’s bosses ever think to investigate the theft of such a large sum of money before firing her?

7. How was Jasmine demanding that she be allowed to call a witness after closing arguments have been heard?  What was that scene supposed to represent?

8. How did Sarah escape to a whole other town/State (presumably) without being caught?  All while in handcuffs?

9. How is Shannon able to remortgage Grace’s house without her knowledge in today’s day of strict KYC guidelines from financial institutions?  I know, I know, but a more researched movie would have handled the situation in a more realistic manner.

10. I am convinced that Tyler Perry deliberately allowed wigs to change size and shape during one scene, allowed Grace to pelt ‘way her slippers coming down the stairs after she had just put them on, allowed the boom mikes to be visible in one scene, directed actors who know much better to overact and filmed it looking like a cheap Lifetime movie from back in the day.  He couldn’t be serious, this had to be a joke.