"Brazen" REVIEW

Is a little wish fulfilment always a bad thing?

Doesn't part of the fun of superhero movies come from imagining that we could that kind of life? We see ourselves in Tony Stark or Spider-Man--not because we're actually like those people, but because it's fun to pretend that we're like those people. It's not realistic, but it's fun.

Or take Stephen King. How many times does he write about best-selling authors? The Dark Half, Misery, 'Salem's Lot, Bag of Bones. The list goes on. Sure, those guys end up in a lot of trouble in each story. They're hounded by all sorts of troubles. Scattered among those troubles, however, you'll find detailed descriptions of the wealth and success they've found via writing. That's probably relatable to King himself, but for the audience? Some of those guys might as well be Tony Stark.

Or what about James Bond? Sam Witwicky? Indiana Jones?

Wish fulfilment pops up in fiction so much that it's generally invisible. It's especially invisible when the subject of that wish fulfilment is a man. People get a little bit antsy about Bella Swan and the wish fulfilment of having two demigods yearning for the average girl.

Wish fulfilment that's explicitly directed for women tends to earn more scrutiny than wish fulfilment that panders towards men.

Brazen is a 2022 Netflix crime thriller about Grace Miller (Alyssa Milano), a best-selling crime author. She writes for an audience of women, but she also writes about violence directed towards women. There's an unease there that the movie brings into the foreground. Can a feminist profit from fiction that depicts the brutal deaths of women? Is there a feminist way to be entertained by the brutal deaths of women?

Then she ends up in the middle of a crime story about the violence towards women. Specifically, in this case, the violence was directed towards Grace's sister, Kathleen. Turns out that Kathleen was living a double-life. As far as the world knows, she's a mother who wants custody of her child, and she teaches. She supplements her income by moonlight as a dominatrix via webcam.

Again, the struggle comes back to the role of women in entertainment. Can a woman perform sexuality for the sake of a predominantly male audience and be empowered by it? Or by performing for the male gaze, does the sex-worker automatically reinforce the patriarchy?

Obviously, the death of a sibling doesn't fall into the general jurisdiction of wish-fulfilment, but then, neither does the ultimate fate of The Dark Half's Thad Beaumont. Like Beaumont, Grace Miller is a renowned author who gets caught in a terrible situation. Like Beaumont, the audience gets to imagine what it's like to be a successful author, and we get the vicarious pleasure of seeing the author display incredible competence outside the world of literature.

Grace Miller, after all, isn't just a crime author. When she gets pulled into the world of of real-life murder, Grace's skills as an amateur detective demonstrate that she's more than just a pretty, successful, charming writer.

I have an instinct for motive. I mean, it's why my books are so successful. I can get inside the mind of a killer, especially the ones that prey on women.

And that's before we introduce the hunky next-door neighbor who happens to be...

• a cop
• single
• and totally into Grace (Wouldn't you know it? He even has one of her books on hand when they meet.)

Is it realistic? Does that even matter?

It's worth noting that Brazen is directed by Monika Mitchell, who is best known for movies like The Knight Before Christmas or To Have and to Hold. It's based on a novel by Nora Roberts, who wikipedia describes as an "American author of more than 225 romance novels." It's fair to say that the romance with the hunky cop isn't just a fringe element of the story here, and again, that plays into the wish fulfilment of the story.

But it's not just a romance either. We're also made to watch as women are murdered in brutal ways by men. The violence doesn't happen entirely off-screen, and it's not painless or bloodless. We watch a man strangle a women while she struggles and screams. Not exactly Hallmark channel material. Still, the crime elements aren't exactly in the realm of gritty realism.

As far as mysteries go, it's not Agatha Christie, but it's not Gillian Flynn either.

Does that mean it won't find an audience?

As of this writing, Brazen sits at #2 on Netflix's Top 10 in my region. It's sappy, and sometimes it's silly, and a lot of the dialogue is cheesy, but the data shows that people are checking it out. It's not getting incredible reviews, but I don't think anyone involved thought they were making Oscar-bait here.

Should you spend 90 minutes of your life with Brazen? I suspect by this point in the review you already know. If you are looking for something mildly romantic, mildly thrilling, and without the constraints of dry realism, Brazen might be for you. If you're expecting a serious discussion of crime, you can probably find something that will appeal to you more. There are some themes here that are kind of interesting, although the movie doesn't exactly take time to plumb the depths of any of them. Brazen is fluff. It is almost the definition of fluff.

It's not any worse than the rest of the fluff that is out there.

At times, it even surprised me. The movie's first act introduces thematic questions about the intersection of the male gaze and empowerment. By the end of the movie, it actually made a definitive statement about sex-work and empowerment. That's not bad for fluff.

"Brazen" is available via Netflix.