Rated 25%, This Crime Film Still Demolished Netflix Top 10 Last Weekend
How is that even possible?
Summary:
- Mea Culpa is a Netflix original legal thriller starring Destiny's Child’s Kelly Rowland.
- Premiering in February 2023, Mea Culpa topped Netflx's ratings during the first weekend of March.
- Despite its popularity, Mea Culpa has only received a 25% approval rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes.
If there is one thing that is known about film critics, it is that they view films through the prism of their own extensive training in cinematography and experience as both writers and viewers. There are a lot of technical details and storytelling tools that are not obvious to anyone but professionals, and it's always interesting to read about them in reviews.
In the end, however, a movie's success with the audience doesn't always depend on the number of clever technical details. A fundamentally interesting story in a popular genre, with a big name attached to the project, may be enough to get viewers interested and make the project commercially successful.
Many believe that this is exactly what happened in the case of Netflix's Mea Culpa. Despite having an incredibly low rating on every possible review platform, it still managed to top the streamer's ratings in the second weekend after its premiere.
Is Mea Culpa Bad?
Starring Destiny's Child’s Kelly Rowland as a lawyer named Mea Harper who gets involved in the case of a man accused of murdering his girlfriend, Mea Culpa has everything you could want in an exciting legal drama. There is an intriguing case with many suspects, there is family drama, and there is plenty of steamy romance. That is, on paper.
In reality, unfortunately, the movie didn't seem to live up to anyone's high expectations. While many decided to put their faith in Rowland's talent and her ability to pull off any script, that wasn't the case.
Though all viewers pointed out the film's beautiful visuals and Netflix's standard quality of production, there wasn't much else to praise. The writing was weak, every character was inconsistent, and every twist was predictable. Even the spiciest parts of the movie, which were supposed to be erotic, ended up being cringeworthy.
The audience was a little more generous than the critics, but that's mostly because Kelly Rowland's name is attached to the movie. Even with the singer promoting Mea Culpa, the audience couldn't give Tyler Perry's thriller more than a 37% rating, while the critics' score landed at 25%.
If you do consider yourself a fan of Kelly Rowland, perhaps it’s best to not ruin the mood with an unfortunate premiere and go back to some of the singer and the actress’ more recognized projects, like The Seat Filler.
However, if you are too curious about what infuriated both the audience and the critics so much about Mea Culpa, you can stream the movie exclusively on Netflix.