BRAZEN -- An Unoriginal and Uninspired Crime Drama

Review by Camden Ferrell

​Nora Roberts is a renowned romance and suspense writer with numerous books to her name after expansive career. Brazen is a new movie on Netflix that is based on one of her books. This movie is directed by TV movie veteran Monika Mitchell. From the start, the movie is nothing more than an amalgamation of tired tropes from the crime genre, and it fails to craft anything novel or enjoyable as a result.
 
Grace is a successful crime and mystery writer. In Washington D.C., Grace’s sister is murdered. It is revealed that her sister was living a double life as a teacher and a webcam performer. Despite being asked to stay away, Grace soon becomes involved with the investigation to find her sister’s killer. This is an unoriginal set up for a mystery film that feels like it has been done countless times before.
 
The writing quickly proves to be derivative and forced in nature. Written by Suzette Couture and Donald Martin, all of the dialogue sounds incredibly cheesy and cliché. Both of these writers have extensive experience writing TV movies, and this writing effort is about what one can expect from this style of writing. The plot beats are boringly predictable, and there is little to enjoy in its story and twists.

​The acting throughout this movie is mostly forgettable at best. The one exception is Alyssa Milano who leads the film as Grace. She isn’t particularly impressive, but she is adequate as the famous writer, and she is one of the few things that are even mildly enjoyable. Her supporting cast is lackluster and don’t do much to play off of her or elevate the quality of their scenes.
 
This definitely feels like the kind of cheesy crime drama you would likely find on Lifetime or Hallmark, and it doesn’t ever strive to be anything more than that. Mitchell’s direction makes a short 90-minute-film drag unnecessarily through underwhelming scenes that are as bland as they are inefficient. It’s as derivative and boilerplate as they come, and it will mostly appeal to fans of the genre.
 
You will quickly know whether or not you will like Brazen. It’s cheesy and repetitive, and it’s as predictable as it is bland. There are no thrills or surprises through the story even though it tries to act as if there is. It’ll probably find its niche, but most audiences will feel bored by this film.
 
Brazen is available on Netflix January 13.
 
Rating: 1.5/5