Brian Green

I watched this because of the Stellar cast, and a National Oscars review. Big mistake. Clunky, wooden, full of plot holes, and visually sterile. Ultimately a huge disappointment.

This was utter tripe. The plot had more holes than a Swiss cheese. The warning of the dangers of being exposed to digital hacking by hanging out your washing on the assortment of social platforms aside, I would have struggled to give it one star. Events occur in unrealistic timelines. Police, innocent accused individuals, lawyers, etc, come and go with no one being read their “rights”. Red herrings are introduced repeatedly, then dropped with no explanation. The family at the centre of the story is the current “woke”, mixed race, well off, well educated metropolitan version that exists somewhere, but not with the prevalence that “Netflix “ would have you believe. The only thing missing was a “black” Chief investigating officer, but they had a “Muslim” detective to compensate for that. Utter nonsense.

I rushed to see this film, and came away wondering why I had bothered? If I had watched it as a “Netflix”, or “YouTube” documentary, I would be less disappointed, and would probably have looked for something else to watch 20 minutes in, but it wasn’t, and I didn’t. I found it tedious, monotonous, and repetitive. Aretha showed the range, and power of her voice, as ever, and the joy her formative years singing in the church with her father gave her, but unless you like the material, what worth does the end product have? Endless wailing. Not recommended.