The Mea Culpa movie is Tyler Perry‘s latest film that has somehow managed to set the internet on fire for all the wrong reasons. Released on Netflix as part of Tyler Perry’s multi-year first-look deal, the 120-minute steamy/erotic thriller was released on February 23, 2024. Mea Culpa generally follows the typical Tyler Perry-produced movie, but even by his standards, the movie fell off in several ways. However, as with anything produced these days, there’s a growing number of viewers who still consider Mea Culpa a masterpiece.
Mea Culpa currently holds a 14% rating on Rotten Tomatoes from seven critic ratings. Unsurprisingly, six of those seven reviews left a “Rotten” rating. At this point, it’s not even a matter of witch-hunting but more of a cry for sanity. Tyler Perry‘s life and career success story has inspired many. It would be a shame to have him lose his audience now at the pinnacle of it all.
What Mea Culpa’s Plot Is About
Mea Culpa wastes no time introducing the main character, Mea (Kelly Rowland). Mea and her husband, Kal (Sean Sagar), are in couples counseling, trying to resolve rising marital issues. Less than five minutes in, it’s already ascertained Kal is a “momma’s boy,” much to the chagrin of his wife. Kal was an anesthesiologist who was fired from his job eight months earlier after he was caught drunk and apparently getting intoxicated by his own drugs. Not wanting to disappoint his mother, Azalia (Kerry O’Malley), and brother, Kal has yet to tell them he lost his job.
Mea, a super-successful criminal defense attorney, now shoulders the financial responsibility of the home. With his family believing he’s still a high-paid anesthesiologist, Kal continues giving his mother expensive things, especially on her birthday. Kal’s mother disapproves of Mea as her son’s wife, preferring Kal’s childhood friend, Jenna. Kal’s older brother, Ray (Nick Sagar), is the District Attorney looking to run for Mayor. Ray is prosecuting a “sure win” homicide case involving artist Zyair Malloy (Trevante Rhodes), accused of killing his girlfriend, Hydie (María Gabriela González).
Approached by Zyair, Mea decides to represent him and prove his innocence. With their continued marital crisis, Mea begins a romantic affair (steamy, wax-melting, paint-playing sex). Mea’s trusted Private Investigator sends her a picture indicating her husband was cheating (which he wasn’t), so she uses a more than willing Zyair as payback. Defending Zyair exposes a dark family secret that would put Mea’s life in danger. In the end, a plot twist will leave viewers in shock of who’s guilty and who’s not.
Mea Culpa Does Little With Its Casting
Undoubtedly, casting Kelly Rowland as its lead helped Mea Culpa‘s marketing. Music and movie fans were thrilled to see Rowland on screen for over an hour (Thank you, Tyler Perry). Unarguably, Rowland, a natural performer and entertainer, had the performance in Mea Culpa. While no doubt a stronger lead with more experience would have done justice, Rowland was truly exceptional in the role. Although not a new actor, Trevante Rhodes was wrongly cast to play Zyair Malloy.
There was little to no chemistry between his character and Rowlands. Save for Perry’s written plot to have Zyair as a seductively enticing client, Zyair and Mea’s chemistry progressed blandly. The highlight of their chemistry was the sex scene, which was more erotic because it starred Kelly Rowland. If audiences look past the slow-paced, shabby delivery of the rest of the cast, Mea Culpa would be less frustrating to watch. Since his first screen production of Diary of a Mad Black Woman in 2005, Tyler Perry has had and worked with an incredibly talented cast that adds to the depth of each character, irrespective of whether they’re only playing supporting roles.
While this may fall flat for supposed “dedicated” Tyler Perry fans, if Mea Culpa wasn’t written, directed, and produced by Tyler Perry and starred multi-Grammy Award-winner Kelly Rowland, there may not be enough alphabet letters to properly rate it. Simply put, would you watch or painfully rewatch Mea Culpa and give it a good rating if Tyler Perry and Kelly Rowland weren’t associated with it?
Mea Culpa’s Plot Holes and Everything Wrong With the Plot
Ignoring the over-flogged “successful black woman and a leech partner” trope that Tyler Perry movies are known for, the Mea Culpa movie is far from Tyler Perry’s best work. There’s nothing wrong with creating suspense for viewers about the Zyair character. Film audiences have seen it play out in movies like David Fincher’s 2014 Gone Girl (which interestingly starred Tyler Perry). It left audiences doubting Nicholas “Nick” Dunne’s (Ben Affleck) innocence at the beginning of the movie. However, with Zyair, he showed unbelievable emotion and calm for someone who was actually innocent. Even Mea had to ask at some point if he didn’t care about dying by lethal injection. With the cards stacked against him, Zyair was more bothered about pleasuring his lawyer than proving his innocence. In real life, where people get sent to prison for life for homicide, Zyair’s nonchalance is simply unrelatable.
Mea’s sorry excuse for a professional, capable Private Investigator, Jimmy (RonReaco Lee), was practically useless in the movie. Besides, helping Mea confirm her gut feeling that Zyair could be innocent. Although illogical to push blames for infidelity, Jimmy’s crappy investigation instigated Mea’s decision to revenge-cheat on her husband. Then, there’s the obvious fact that Mea represented Zyair to prove a point to her in-laws. With no instant attraction between Mea and Zyair, it’s unrealistic for the character to put her life and career on the line for him.
In the Mea Culpa movie, Tyler Perry somehow had African-American protesters protesting against a black female-owned business (art gallery) for the death of a Hispanic woman. It slowly begins to sink in after these black protesters (women) are repeatedly shown relentlessly trying to shut down another black woman’s business. Tyler Perry’s Mea Culpa is probably set in a Utopian society and not in the realistic world of viewers. Then, we have Mea escaping her in-law’s home towards the end of the movie. Unless she somehow became an Olympic sprinter, she seemed to have covered quite a lot of distance. It took almost forever from where her husband picked her up by the road. Surprisingly, they still didn’t reach the house after all that long drive and accident. An accident that could throw her husband out of the windshield shows they were driving fast. Although it helps the movie plot, it does little for a logical explanation of how Mea could cover those distances by running. Unless Tyler Perry would have viewers believe she was running all night, which would poke more holes in the plot.
Why Tyler Perry Should Consider Using A Writer’s Room
In early 2020, Tyler Perry shared in an Instagram video that he doesn’t have a writer’s room. Although it left his audience divided, it showed his dedication to quality and maintaining standards his film and television audiences had come to love. Unarguably, Tyler Perry remains one of Hollywood’s most creative minds in film and television. As his own writer’s room, considering the sheer number of projects he works on, at some point, it would begin to affect his quality.
In recent years, Perry’s movies have almost become predictable. Although the Madea movies still have a growing fanbase, without fresh ideas, the upcoming Madea’s Destination Wedding may share the same fate as Mea Culpa. Without delving into the politics of why he has chosen to work without a writer’s room, if not for anything, one is needed now to bring in new ideas. While it takes nothing from his genius, it can help give a new direction to his movies.
Undoubtedly, Mea Culpa would benefit from the publicity, whether negative or not. However, Tyler Perry’s movies have attracted millions of fans for over a decade for much more. Mea Culpa would best have been performed as a stage play rather than a film. Thanks to his Netflix deal, now more than ever, Perry has an opportunity to capture a new type of audience. Mea Culpa lacked direction, with a focus only on erotics and a plot twist that’ll most likely leave audiences more annoyed than surprised. Daddy’s Little Girls (2007), Why Did I Get Married? (2007) and its sequel, For Colored Girls (2010) and Acrimony (2018), are all notable works of Tyler Perry – Mea Culpa (2024) just wasn’t. After reading about the Mea Culpa movie by Tyler Perry, read 10 Movies Tyler Perry Starred In That He Didn’t Produce or Direct.
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