Mea Culpa review
Mea Culpa is Tyler Perry’s magnum opus of trashy dramas. This covers a wide spectrum of such cinematic spectacles as Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor, Acrimony and A Fall From Grace.
It’s a comedy tragically masquerading as a quasi-serious drama. Yes, it’s terrible, but more so on an entertaining level as opposed to completely embarrassing. It’s a low-grade nighttime soap opera slimmed down to two hours.
Kelly Rowland is Mea, a successful defense attorney at her Chicago firm. Her marriage is on shaky ground as her husband, Cal (Sean Sagar, The Gentlemen) lost his job yet is maintaining the illusion of keeping everything going for his family. Mea’s in-laws aren’t awesome. Her mother-in-law, Azalia (Kerry O’Malley) is cartoonishly wicked to ridiculous levels. Mea’s minding her tongue since Azalia is dying from cancer.
Her district attorney brother-in-law, Ray (Sagar’s actual brother, Nick Sagar), isn’t much better treating Mea like an assistant. At least Mea can take solace with her best friend/sister-in-law, Charlise (Shannon Thornton, P-Valley).
Mea gets a splashy potential case when acclaimed artist, Zyair Malloy (Trevante Rhodes, Moonlight), wants her to represent him. Zyair is awaiting trial for killing his girlfriend, Hydie (María Gabriela González). With Cal putting on his best “I’m the man of this house” impression, Mea is clearly fluttering at the knees at the sight of a confident, secure dude.
Of course, there’s the little matter of him potentially killing his girlfriend. Perry, who directed, produced and wrote Mea Culpa, mentioned in promotional interviews that he’s started dabbling in AI. Clearly no AI was harmed or implemented in the making of this film. If so, it probably would have clued Perry into a major issue with this murder mystery.
For the sake of playing along in blissful ignorance, it’s best not to ask these obvious questions about the murder. Instead, be aghast at the pictures of the crime scene Zyair can’t remember actually happening. Maybe it was the weed he smokes constantly? It helps him focus on his art, but does it also help him set up poorly conceived murders?
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Mea isn’t totally alone in this case. She’s got her crack private investigator buddy, Jimmy (RonReaco Lee), on the case digging up all kinds of useful information. But will it be enough to keep Mea from getting entranced by Zyair’s smooth talking, underground sex club and gallons of spare paint and floor length canvas? Well, it’s a Tyler Perry production. What do you think?
Rowland gives her all to this performance and more. She should get a medal for so delivering above and beyond what this film deserved. She and Rhodes have a striking, heat of the moment kind of chemistry that largely works. Even when Perry throws in nonsensical elements like Zyair’s hygiene habits.
Production values are solid with good work on the lighting and set designs. The wardrobe selections were exceptional.
Perry has nestled securely in his screenwriting lane. He writes his characters like they’re idiots who complicate things needlessly just to force some insane drama. There’s a twist that would have M. Night Shyamalan going “Man, I don’t know if this is a great idea.”
It feels like it’s going to take Perry a Herculean effort to top Mea Culpa in terms of sheer absurdity. It’s ridiculous storytelling with some huge plot holes and questionable choices. But there won’t be a need to apologize for watching this going in if you set your expectations exceedingly low.
Rating: 3 out of 10
Photo Credit: Netflix