A Fall From Grace

A film that has a strong, though a bit of a cliché start, a quite weak middle and a heck of a strong ending.

It is so good to see Phylisia Rashad (Dr Clair Huxtable from The Cosby Show)! You can totally see why Jasmine (played by Bresha Webb) and Grace (Crystal Fox) develop such a warm bond with her.
You don’t immediately see why Jasmine is so attracted to the case. After all, she tries convincing her boss not to let her have to have this case, as she’s already swarmed by work as it is, and yet in the entire film there is no case that presses itself upon Jasmine with any urge at all. Given her initial response to this said case, that is quite…odd.

In the middle, when things start adding up, it is my believe that the downfall for Jasmine shouldn’t have been portrayed like that. Jasmine is basically the superstar that the powerful men want to see fall and that’s exactly what happens. They could have done that within fewer time, in my opinion. It’s a trend I see nowadays, to let even the ‘superhero’ in a story, fall. Quite hard. I don’t know of any lawyer/barrister who would rather have themselves be jailed than to follow the orders of the judge, and yet that’s exactly what happens. I do not see why that scene had to be added to the film. I do wonder if there’s material on the cutting floor that could have been sufficient instead.

Anyway, in the end we finally get to see all of Alice, played by Cicely Tyson. Her face rang a bell to me, and indeed she plays Constantine in the film The Help, which is about slavery. I loved that film, but that’s quite another story.

Also, Jordan Bryant (played by Matthew Law) is seen to make several mistakes by handcuffing people who he then tells to ‘don’t move!’ as he quickly follows up another order. You do wonder: how does he think that’s gonna work out then?

All in all it’s a good film with some outstanding actors. I myself especially loved seeing Pylicia Rashad and Cicely Tyson again.

 

Arne Dahl

Named after the author of the books, this Swedish detective series has really good background stories. Too bad that in at least the first few episodes, none of the facial expressions actually make sense with the news they either receive or spread. Honestly, I’ve never seen such blank faces. It’s hardly believeable.
Anyway, it does get better after a while, but oddly in the second season, it’s mostly due to a new, younger face of Ida Jankowitsch.

One of the nice things about this series is that yes, it starts with what goes wrong and with whom, but it never completely goes by a certain script. It is always a surprise what you’re looking at, which keeps you at your toes.

OK, so you don’t need to watch it for the emotions (not saying they’re not there, just that they aren’t well-played by the cast), but the storylines are really quite powerful.
And: not every case ends necessarily in a completely ‘happy ending’. I like this too, as it means variety.

 

The Man In The High Castle

This series, provided by primevideo, an amazon channel, interested me as it is Science Fiction mixed with history. The serie is based on the idea: what if Hitler would have WON the second world war?
In this series, The United States of America are devided in a Chinese part, an American part and a so called neutral zone.
It starts around the fifties/sixties and this gives it a very weird vibe somehow. It is like Back to the Future’s Dr Emmett Brown has send you to an alternative universe. And like The Usual Suspects’ Kaiser Soze has gotten a different alias…
A thing that really dawned on me was that despite the fact they claim the war is over, you still see so much tention in the streets. Nobody is truly taken with one another. Anyone who looks even a simmer of differently, is approached with suspicion, only people who look ‘Arian enough’ are met with instant friendliness. I myself thought ‘wait, this is what it would look like when there’s PEACE in such a world?!’

Though the first season dwells on quite long about the partnership of Juliana Crain (played by Alexa Davalos) and Joe Blake (Luke Kleintank), it made me cringe a bit. Maybe that’s because loads of series now have a female lead that isn’t so easy to persuade by a man with obvious bad intentions. Then again, this were the fifties/sixties, when women might have had this sort of pleasing attitude, either by nature or nurture.

I have understood the series is based on a book, and the films this series is on about, are only that because it is a serie. I wasn’t much impressed by the films anyway. I assume you need a bit more of a backstory to understand what they stand for? A bit more than what is handed to you by the chars, yes.

After the first season, I actually gave up. This has two reasons: first, I thought the background story started crumbling. I couldn’t go aboard with it.
Second, and this may sound weird: I had a severe problem with the Nazi-symbols being worn so openly, without an actual addition to the story. I felt exposed to something I didn’t feel comfortable with. In the country I come from, the symbol is forbidden. I do not wish to associate it with anything worthy of entertainment. The first season the symbols were met with all the horrors that I know came with the second world war. It should what a tremendously bad people these were and still are.
It made me think: through this series, that symbol is gonna be even more ‘normalised’. Something I ma not willing to participate in.
Yes I know that sounds silly.

Anyway. The first season had its interesting moments, especially when you see some of the rules that are being followed for the ill, the elderly and so on, and how that effects the people who live in families with chronically ill persons.

I did think it was worthwhile at first and if you read the books I am sure you will love it. For me it was a bit much.