Brazen Review: An All Around Disaster
Brazen is an adaptation of Nora Robert’s book, Brazen Virtue, that follows popular crime novelist Grace as she is reeling from the loss of her sister, Kathleen. Grace joins the police investigation to help uncover the truth and get justice for Kathleen.
Unfortunately, the film is a disappointment in absolutely every way. There’s not one aspect where the film excels or even does a decent job. So there isn’t anything you can cling to for some quality entertainment as you move through this film.
This is such a disappointing movie, and it’s hard to know where to start discussing its problems. There isn’t an emotional connection with anyone, the dialogue is super awkward and stiff, and there’s no suspense with the investigation.
One of the biggest disappoints of Brazen is Grace.
She’s a crime novelist who claims she can be such an asset to an investigation due to her amazing profiling skills. The problem is we see absolutely no proof of this up until the moment where she is profiling the ways the killer left both victims.
The majority of the time, she instead comes across as someone who just knows some investigative buzzwords and has a general knowledge of police procedures. Basically, what anyone who has ever watched a couple of crime procedurals or true-crime documentaries would know.
I was expecting someone like Richard Castle from Castle. You know, someone who actually provides useful insight and picks up on things that maybe the detectives missed.
Prior to Grace joining the investigation, all she does is insist Kathleen’s ex-husband is behind it all and fails to consider any other possibility. She comes across as a grieving family member who has their opinion as to who did it and brings up her suspicion constantly.
Once she joins the investigation, she gets a bit better, but she ends up taking on the role of emotionally connecting to the people they talk to.
It’s the typical route to have the woman take when the two detectives are men, and it isn’t any indication of skill on her part. It just means she realizes that a different approach may work better at times.
Perhaps if she joined the investigation sooner, we would’ve seen more of this astute profiling skill Grace has. However, it’s towards the end of Brazen when Grace is allowed to join the investigation. This means that the majority of the time, Grace isn’t portrayed as a profiler extraordinaire, so that’s not how we think of her.
This makes her hard to root for, but honestly, it’s not as if the film does a good job at connecting us to her anyways.
The relationship between Ed and Grace is awkward and laughable. They have zero chemistry, which is a shame because those two actors are fantastic (and extremely attractive), but the script lets them down.
One of the best parts of a romance is the sparks, the banter, and the flirtation that eventually leads to them kissing and sleeping together. Give me some good banter, and I’ll be head over heels for a relationship. There’s none of that in Brazen.
Instead, all of a sudden their one date is progressing to where Ed is quoting tried and true romance lines, like how he can’t just sleep with her once. We don’t see any emotional development in terms of their relationship, but Brazen acts as if it is there, and continues to move Ed and Grace into the next stage and the next.
It’s weird to walk away from a film that partially focuses on a relationship and have zero feelings about that couple, but that’s what happens here.
Stray Thoughts
- Ben is the highlight of the entire movie.
- Why do we have to watch each woman be violently attacked? There’s no need for us to endure this graphic violence.
- Also, there’s no need to follow the bad guy around pre-reveal as to who he is. It’s not exciting.
- She asks to stay at his place when she’s known him for, what, less than 24 hours?!
- Sadly, for the first part of the film, I found myself wanting for the murder to happen already because I was bored.
What did you think of this episode of Brazen? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Brazen is now streaming on Netflix.
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Allison Nichols
Allison is in a love affair with television that doesn't seem to be letting up anytime soon. Slightly damaged fictional characters are her weakness. She loves to spend her free time curled up with a cat and a show to binge-watch. Allison is a Tomatometer-approved critic (Rotten Tomatoes).