I love scrolling through Tubi and making my friends watch these movies. The reactions we have are priceless, and my family’s reaction to this movie was nothing less than hilarious.
Viola January (yes, we also thought this sounded like a made-up name) is a defense attorney in her late 20s. She’s working the case of Reynaldo Jones, a man who’s spent four months in prison for abduction Black women from Peachdale Lake. She believes he’s innocent because of the lack of physical evidence and the fact that the last woman attacked was a half a mile from where he pictured himself fishing. Soon after she starts to dig into the case, she starts getting threating calls–calls threatening to kill her if she continues.
Based on that synopsis, the movie sounds decent. In this case, it was not. Let’s start with these flashbacks. The flashbacks came out of nowhere and kept trying to tell us something that was only explained at the end of the movie and barely at that. If there isn’t going to be a backstory to explain the flashbacks, then don’t use the flashbacks. They told us nothing and they added nothing.
Moving to the homeless man who kept popping up but he never really said anything or added to the story. What could and should have happened was us seeing Viola asking him about what he saw around the shop. This is something that could have added to the story and the mystery. Instead, you just left him to be a random addition to this story that served no purpose.
The writers never properly explained the situation with Viola’s brother’s case or the background of her and Will’s past relationship. I get Will was supposed to be a red herring due to in to the fact that each victim was bound with a pair of police issue handcuffs, but he just, at a certain point, became annoying and not menacing or mysterious at all. The movie kind of pegged the man as desperate which wasn’t sexy nor intriguing.
There was no motive. I don’t care what Viola said at the end of the movie. That is not a motive. I wanted a more complex and thought out motive and I did not get that. I got a cop out to end a movie.
You know what could have made this movie better? I will tell you. Do all of what I’ve said above. Make Reynaldo tell more about his life as a child. Don’t have the threatening calls start so early in the movie. It leaves you with nowhere to go. Give me more action. We got one action scene and it was lackluster. This may sound weird, but hear me out! Abduct another woman while she’s investigation or try and get her more forcefully. We get the outside vent being tampered with but that only pays off at the end of the movie. Also, lackluster.
Did I miss anything? Did you watch this movie?
