A Fall from Grace is a 2020 American thriller Netflix film produced, written, and directed by Tyler Perry.
Grace Water (Crystal Fox) is under arrest for killing her husband, Shannon (Mehcad Brooks). Jasmine Bryant (Bresha Webb), a public defender, is curious about why Grace killed her husband and tries to figure out what really happened.
Little does she know, not everything appears as it should be...
Tropes in A Fall from Grace:
- Artistic License – Biology: Apparently, repeated blunt force trauma is not enough to kill someone and only results in a bandage and two black eyes.
- Artistic License – Law: Let's just say the movie would be shorter if the trial resembled anything like in the real world. It also doesn't make any sense that Grace is being tried for murder as opposed to attempted murder.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: As if it isn't bad enough that Shannon stole from Grace and is displaying abusive traits but when she catches him with another woman, he kicks her out and locks the door behind him. Afterwards, the other woman asks, "you brought me to your mom's house?" Shannon's response? "My momma look better than that."
- Awful Wedded Life: Shannon and Grace, pretty much as soon as they married.
- Bad Cop/Incompetent Cop: Jasmine's husband who has a penchant for leaving handcuffed people unattended.
- Batter Up!: How Grace kills Shannon when she's had enough. Except, not really...
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: What Shannon turns out to be when he shows his true colors.
- Call-Back: Shannon's necklace that Sarah wears during the trial's conclusion which triggers Grace into understanding her true intentions.
- Cliffhanger: How the movie ends, with Sarah plotting on a new woman.
- Crusading Lawyer: Jasmine, who may have started out that way but after only pleading, lost her passion. Her husband convinces her to continue being this.
- Driven to Suicide: An old woman at the beginning of the film throws herself off the roof.
- Evil All Along: Shannon, waiting until he and Grace get married before unleashing his villainy.
- Evil Gloating: Shannon's post-sex monologue, complete with a lit cigarette, detailing how Grace made it easy for him to manipulate her.
- Falling-in-Love Montage: Grace retells the story of how she and Shannon met to Jasmine.
- George Jetson Job Security: Grace is fired immediately after it's discovered that $300,000 dollars went missing from the bank, apparently taken out using her authorization credentials. Her boss fires her on the spot and demands the money back, seemingly without even entertaining the idea of an investigation into whether or not someone stole her credentials.
- Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: Shannon, who doesn't smoke at all before he gets married to Grace, all of a sudden chain smokes now that his intentions have been exposed.
- Incompetence, Inc.: The bank that Grace works for. Shannon is able to: use her credentials to steal $300,000 from the bank, and the bank's only response is to fire her and demand the money back without having her arrested or opening any kind of investigation; take out a $375,000 mortgage on her house without her knowledge, totally inventing a notary who lives at an abandoned address; and take so much money out of her account that she's now overdrawn by $5,000. Somehow, all of this happens, and no fraud alarms are triggered at the bank, and seemingly no one finds it at all suspicious.
- Karma Houdini: Sarah who, despite being wanted for her crimes, is on the loose and still committing said crimes.
- Mean Boss: Rory, who seems to have it out for Jasmine for...some reason.
- Not Quite Dead: Shannon. Seriously.
- Police Are Useless: If they weren't, we wouldn't have much of a movie.
- Protagonist Title: The movie is focused on Grace.
- Sassy Black Woman: Averted, surprisingly. A common theme among Tyler Perry movies, Grace is portrayed as lonely, bitter and angry that her husband has moved on while she is alone. Despite this, her personality seems very easygoing and even Sarah says she doesn't engage in confrontation.
- Serial Killer: Shannon and Sarah are revealed to have caused the deaths of a number of elderly women by kidnapping them and leaving them to die in their basement after conning them out of their fortunes.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Jasmine is married to a cop. Would it not be a conflict of interest for her to request that he, possibly illegally get her information to help her out with Grace's case?
- The Reveal: Shannon and Sarah are actually con artists who have been robbing elderly women out of their money for the past 20 years.
- Toplessness from the Back: In Shannon's case at least. We see his naked butt cheeks before he turns around, revealing his modestly covered groin area.
- Visible Boom Mic: The shadow of the boom mic is visible in many shots.
