Brazen

 Brazen is Netflix’s newest film and it is a film that overall we thought was alright. We found that the story was predictable but the characters were fine. However this is not a film we will necessarily remember in a year.

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Nathanyal’s Brazen Review – 7.7/10

Brazen was an alright movie with nothing really standing out. When it comes to my non-spoiler review, there isn’t too much about this movie that stood out to me. The plot was alright, although it was pretty predictable. Most of the characters are pretty cookie cutter to me, and too generic. I did like Jerald’s acting though. I’ll touch on this more in the spoiler section, but I like how he portrayed his character.
 
When it comes to downsides, the main thing is that the movie is quite predictable. A lot of the twists are seen from a mile away, and again, I’ll touch on this more in the spoiler section. Character wise, the two leads are pretty simple characters that lack any kind of personality. Ed’s secondary has more personality than Ed does, which is just unfortunate. The final thing I want to mention is that the ending is quite disappointing, which I will also touch in spoilers.
 
Overall, Brazen was quite an alright movie. Nothing too innovative, but it could be enjoyable until the end.

Spoiler:
So, welcome to the spoiler section. There are three main things I want to touch, so let’s get started.
 
First things first, I loved Jerald’s character. To me, he was the best actor in this movie. I loved the way the actor played his part, and I genuinely liked how unhinged he was at the end of the movie. The way he acted and spoke felt pretty real, and it was nice to see the killer just lose it. Probably the most exciting actor in this movie.
 
Next, plot wise, the story was pretty predictable. The movie put Rand in the spotlight too much, and it was obvious that he was going to be a red herring. I didn’t believe for a second that he would be a killer. Alongside that, I find it hard that Grace would be able to be a consultant on this case. I feel like there’s some ethical code being broken since she’s working on the case of her sister. I’m not sure if this counts as a conflict of interest, but it seems like it. Not to mention, there is a good chance she will be very biased throughout the investigation.
 
Last thing, I think the ending of the movie ruined it for me. This is another Awake scenario, for avid readers of our site. After Jerald is taken down by Ed, there is no resolution there. No showing what happened. Did Jerald die? Did he go to prison? How did the mother react to her son being a killer? None of that happened. Instead, we just get a scene of the leads in bed, er on a couch, together. It was a dumb way to end the movie, and I wish we got more resolution from this ending.

Austin’s Brazen Review – 7.5/10

Brazen is a pretty wacky movie, start to finish, and surprisingly the characters are better than the plot. The plot for me feels forced, and it really seems like the writers weren’t quite sure which direction they wanted to take this. We go from a thriller to a romance and then back, and it isn’t a smooth transition. The flow of this movie is nearly none existent, and the changes of tone don’t fit well. I found it slightly jarring to not have a consistent rhythm, and it definitely makes it harder to watch.

I thought the actual story was pretty decent, but the plot was slow and off-focus more often than not. The actually story is stretched out pretty good, and it doesn’t have too many spectacular events. The thriller aspects were really good, but they were few and far between. The romance side of things was fantastic for our protagonists and their development, but it feels out of place at times. It also killed the mood, and it was difficult to follow at times. Would have loved to see more of the thriller side of this movie, or more of a focus on the romance instead of being caught in the middle. The ending was really well done in my mind, with the suspense and all of the clues leading up to that point. The rest of the movie doesn’t do the ending justice, but it’s a satisfactory end to a really mediocre movie.

Our main characters are the highlight without a dope. Grace (Alyssa Milano) and Ed (Sam Page) are really well written, and honestly they are a lot of fun to watch. They make for a really good pair with their fair share of issues. Those issues make them feel more real and slightly more relatable, which is massively important for this movie. There is some awkward dialogue, and they aren’t perfectly developed, but I thought they were a sparkle of light in a pretty not-impressive movie. The acting was pretty good, and it does help make the weird tone changes a little bit more manageable. All in all, our characters make this watchable, although a solid plot would have utilized their talents much, much better.

This wouldn’t rise to the top of my list of things to watch on Netflix right now, and I probably wouldn’t see it a second time. It is an alright movie, but if you are coming for a thriller you are going to be disappointed. Go check out something older before you watch this.

Spoiler:
Not much to talk about in spoiler land today, but there are two points I’ll dive into. Firstly, the sexual content surprised me just a little bit. I think it worked with the plot of the movie, but the writers didn’t shy away from any subject matters. It feels a little bit more mature than TV-14, but nothing like a R rated movie. It doesn’t feel out of place, so if you are comfy with that, it provides a unique aspect to the film. The red hearings in this movie are fantastic, and Jerald Baker was a great reveal to end this one. Some people felt it was really obvious, but I didn’t see it coming until it was pretty much revealed. As well, it took me a minute to figure out his motivations which kept me more engaged for the final 20 minutes than I had been in the entire movie. Not the most remarkable ending in the world, but one of the better plot moments of the entire movie.

Sebastian’s Brazen Review – 6.0/10

Now for anyone who has read my reviews since starting this website you may have noticed that generally I am pretty kind towards movies and am usually quite positive even when I didn’t like a film but for this film, I don’t know, I just didn’t like it very much. I have watched many mysteries in my time and even the predictable ones I could find entertainment while watching but this film was just dull.  I just found that this film had nothing that surprising or engaging in it.  The characters were bland and standard and the story was as predictable as can be. The story is that Grace, a bestselling murder mystery author, is visiting her sister Kathleen when one night Kathleen is murdered. So Grace along with the detective next door investigate together to find the killer. Now I know that sounds like a pretty by-the-numbers murder mystery plot and it is but there is one element I wasn’t expecting that I will talk about in the spoiler section.  The actors did a fine job with what they were given. I just think that the script they were given wasn’t that interesting and didn’t really give any development to the characters. Our protagonist Grace played by Alyssa Milano is an author who writes murder mystery novels so she decides to help the investigation into her sister’s murder. I found her character underdeveloped and sadly annoying because I can tell the actress is trying. I just didn’t like the character.  This movie wasn’t long, only about an hour and a half but the pacing was so slow that I felt that this film was two hours and in this case that wasn’t an upside.  I just felt that the mystery was poorly handled as I felt that they moved through all the red herrings too quickly not making me believe it was any of them.

All in all, this wasn’t a great film and I wouldn’t recommend it unless you only want to watch a new Netflix film. Otherwise, just leave this one off your list.

SPOILERS:
Now my biggest problem with this film actually revolves around the characters and most specifically Grace. She is an author, not a detective or a private investigator and she does not seem capable of solving crimes. Now I know this isn’t the first time in the film there has been an author who has ended up solving a murder but I found it hard to believe her character was not only great at solving a murder but better than the police. If they had established her as being this one of a kind in some aspect of investigation maybe I could see her as someone who could pull this off but to me, she seemed much more talk than action. They have one scene showing us her criminal profiling skills and I feel that wasn’t enough to justify her basically taking the lead on the investigation.

Also, I don’t believe she should have been allowed in on the investigation as she was way too emotionally attached and I know I’m no police officer but I’m pretty sure police aren’t even usually allowed to investigate relatives’ murders let alone a civilian.

Finally, in terms of being predictable, I figured it would be Jerald who was the killer. Now yes I have seen a lot of these kinds of movies but I felt every scene he was in made it more and more clear which made it harder to believe the other suspects were even a possibility.

The positive thing in spoilers that I want to mention is the element of the dominatrix that was introduced as the targets of the killer and Kathleen, Grace’s sister being one herself. Now, this was a surprisingly sexual movie which was unexpected and took away from the mystery in my opinion but at the same time, it was a unique element that made this film stand out.