Sunday, May 26, 2019

The Perfection

Movie Name: The Perfection
Year of Release: 2019
Director: Richard Shepard
Starring: Allison Williams, Logan Browning, Steven Weber, Alaina Huffman, Milah Thompson, Molly Grace, Graeme Duffy, Mark Kandborg, Winnie Hung
Genre: Thriller, Drama
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 2
View Trailer

Synopsis and Review:
Another month, another feature released by streaming giant, Netflix. "The Perfection" follows the story of Charlotte, a talented cellist who has had to give up her career in order to care for her mother, who in the meantime has passed away. Charlotte reaches back out to the head of the school, and goes to Shanghai to witness their selection process of a new star pupil. While in Shanghai Charlotte meets the young woman who took her role as star pupil/protege, Lizzie. The two women form a fast friendship, that quickly becomes romantic. The following day they decide to go explore a bit of the area, but Lizzie starts feeling nauseous, which becomes aggravated the further away from the city they are. In parallel with the nausea, Lizzie starts hallucinating, until they get expelled from the bus and something drastic occurs. When we next see Lizzie, we witness the aftermath of those events and the thirst for revenge she has. However she ends up unearthing a lot more than she anticipated when she goes out looking for closure.
Netflix is on a spree to create content and maintain their subscribers interested in their releases. This however means that for every superlative "Roma" that comes along, a lot of less than interesting films seem to also be getting released, which is the case of this "The Perfection" (the ration quality versus quantity, definitely seems to be falling on the latter). Richard Shepard who in the past has directed interesting features such as "The Matador" and "The Hunting Party", limits himself to illustrate in this case a rather pedestrian plot, which almost plays itself as a tv film of dubious quality. This revenge plot is uninspired, and even this committed cast can't save it from the ultimate fact that these characters are barely passable, the situations barely believable and the final twist, less than laughable. In order to make this truly unforgettable, the film needed a stronger narrative, defined characters and an actual sense of dread that never materializes. It's an instantly forgettable endeavor. 

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