Information reaching Kossyderrickent has it that Tyler Perry dragged after Kelly Rowland fucking Trevante Rhodes in paint bodies in Mea Culpa on Netflix movie sex scene goes viral.
In the trending video, Kelly Rowland (Mea Harper) fucked Trevante Rhodes (Zyair Malloy) roughly in painted bodies in the bed.
His latest target is a powerful lawyer played by Kelly Rowland, making a convincing case as leading lady, trapped in a marriage with a letdown, a man fired from his job as an anaesthetist for turning up to work high and drunk (!). He’s also under the thumb of his vile mother, played to such laughable extremes by Kerry O’Malley that I half-expected her to literally start breathing fire. When Mea is approached about defending an extravagant painter, Zayir (Moonlight’s MVP Trevante Rhodes, who deserves far better), accused of murdering his girlfriend, she initially turns it down, not just because the case seems unwinnable but because her brother-in-law would be the opposing attorney (!). But when the aforementioned battleaxe, also dying of cancer (!), insists that Mea not take the case, she decides to rebel and soon finds herself falling for her client. Kinky sex follows.
Before things get preposterously delightful, Mea and Zyair have a sensual game of cat and mouse to play. Unfortunately, Rowland and Rhodes have no chemistry. They look the part and are lit in a way that accentuates their attractiveness, but something is off. The cheesy dialogue doesn’t help, nor does the repetitiveness of scenes where they threaten to end their professional relationship. Same goes for Mea’s many phone calls with her P.I., which do nothing but interrupt the budding infatuation.
Perry tries to infuse some heat into the proceedings with Amanda Jones’ score. But using music to create erotic tension that doesn’t exist is a fool’s errand, no matter how loud or soft it gets. The actors are just not in rhythm. They seem to be waiting for one another to finish sentences, throwing off the flow of the scenes.
An argument ensues, and accusations start flying from both spouses. Suddenly he’s not just a mama’s boy with a wandering eye, he’s also unemployed. To make matters worse, he was fired from his job as an anesthesiologist because he was high and drunk while working — or as Mea puts it, “got addicted to his own shit.” Rowland tries to infuse all the conviction she can muster into that line, but the scene immediately goes from serious to hilarious. It’s an early indication that there’s much more ridiculousness to come. Perry delivers on that promise.
Perry clearly has his sights set on glossy 80s and 90s crowd-pleasers like Jagged Edge and Basic Instinct and for fans of that mostly dead subgenre, there’s some initially involving throwback pleasure as we go through the motions (Fatal Attraction-esque freight elevator – check!). Rowland and Rhodes have a blast doing sex eyes at each other, there’s a small role for the underused Surviving Remorse standout RonReaco Lee and while we’re clearly on a Netflix budget, Perry realises that part of the sleek thrill of these movies is watching attractive people wearing expensive clothes living in ostentatious homes. But Perry is no Joe Eszterhas, his script a clumsily thrown together house of cards that needs only a whisper to come crashing down.
