Brazen

19 Nov

An amateur detective finds herself trapped in an amateur thriller.

The amateur detective has long been a staple of literature, cinema, television and radio, from Miss Marple to Father Brown, and all points in between. Here we have Grace Miller (Alyssa Milano), a mystery novelist (as they often are), returning home to Washington DC following an extensive tour publicising her work, only to discover a crime on her own (figuratively speaking) doorstep. Deciding to visit her sister Kathleen (Emilie Ullerup) who she hasn't seen for a while and who is fighting a divorce custody battle with her ex-husband Jonathan (David Lewis), she finds Sis surviving on a low teacher's salary by moonlighting as an online dominatrix called Desiree.

When one of Kathleen's video co-workers is found dead, Grace gets involved with her neighbour, who just happens to be a cop, Detective Ed Jennings (Sam Page). She puts all her experience as a thriller writer to work in order to help solve the murder... and, of course, to go on a date with Ed too. On returning home, Grace finds her sister has also been murdered. When she visits her sister's school class she finds out that Kathleen had issues with the school janitor who was aware of the teacher's extra-mural activities as Desiree, because his cousin works for the website.

This is all pretty standard stuff with a number of possibly guilty parties until, that is, the villain becomes all too apparent. The cast try to look as if they believe in a story about the raunchy shenanigans of a schoolmarm selling herself online, but it's a stretch too far. If the audience finds it diverting enough while it's playing, it is still too stereotypical of the genre to make any real sense. Bring back Miss Marple, say I.

MICHAEL DARVELL

Cast: Alyssa Milano, Sam Page, Malachi Weir, Emilie Ullerup, Matthew Aaron Finlan, Alison Araya, Colleen Wheeler, David Lewis.

Dir Monika Mitchell, Pro Stephanie Germain, Peter Gruber and Peter E. Strauss, Screenplay Edithe Swensen, Donald Martin and Suzette Couture, based on the novel Brazen Virtue by Nora Roberts, Ph Bob Aschmann, Pro Des Sean Kirkby, Ed Christopher A. Smith, Music James Jandrisch and Jeff Tymoschuk, Costumes Sheila White.

Eponymous Production/Mandalay Pictures-Netflix.
94 mins. USA. 2022. Rel: 13 January 2022. Available on Netflix. Cert. 15.

★★½

Michael Darvell

Michael Darvell trained as a librarian at Watford and in Surrey before joining Ealing Libraries where he became Music Librarian for the borough. He edited Masthead, the magazine of the University of North London School of Librarianship, The Surrealist, the staff magazine of Surrey County Library, and contributed to the Assistant Librarian and London Librarian professional journals. A freelance film reviewer since 1970, he has written for Film, Films Illustrated, Film Review, Movie Maker and Radio Times, as well as editing Montage, the London film societies magazine, for ten years. A change of career saw him joining What’s On in London as Features Editor and he eventually stepped into the shoes of the late F. Maurice Speed (founding father of Film Review annual) as the magazine’s Editor. From 2007 to 2015, he was co-editor of the Film Review annual with Mansel Stimpson. As well as writing about films, Michael has reviewed theatre for The Stage newspaper, and has written about music theatre and cabaret for the Classical Source and Musical Theatre Review websites. He is also a former restaurant critic for the ViewLondon website. Michael has been a member of the London Film Critics’ Circle since 2005.

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