'We Belong Together' - Review (Netflix)

Tracy (Draya Michele) is released from incarceration. She decides to enroll in college. Thomas Lewis is a recovering alcoholic who is trying to get his life together after a divorce from his ex-wife, Megan (Elise Neal). Because of his alcoholism, Megan got custody of their daughter, Brittany (Cassidey Fralin), who he has not been allowed to see whilst recovering.

Thomas is a professor of Greek mythology, and Tracy decides to take his class. In the first class, the students are introduced to Leslie (Jessica Vanessa DeLeon) a teaching assistant to Thomas, who has taken the class before. Tracy focuses on Leslie. Tracy bumps into Thomas outside of the class. She tells him that she is looking for a job. He hooks her up with a contact in a steak restaurant he knows.

The next day, Tracy comes in with a new hairstyle. It is the same as Leslie’s. Tracy catches up with Thomas after the class. She got the job thanks to his contact, and just wanted to thank him. While he is speaking to her, Leslie comes and interrupts. She tells Thomas she is going to be working late at the college.

Alone in the college, Leslie gets attacked by a shadowy figure, strangled, and thrown off of a balcony. The next day the class is cancelled due to Leslie’s murder. A couple of homicide detectives, Daily (Brian White) and Hanks (Alan Miller), come into the class to ask about the murder. They have CCTV photos of the suspect.

Tracy comes to see Thomas. She tells him that she and Leslie had become friendly, and that Leslie used to pick her up from work. Thomas reluctantly agrees to pick her up from work following Leslie’s untimely demise. Thomas goes to the diner, and meets Tracey, still having some reservations about the situation.

Thomas takes Tracey home, and she makes sexual advances towards him. He declines, telling her that he is still in love with his ex-wife. Also, he thinks that, as she is his student, it would be unethical. Thomas goes to see Megan. He tells her he still loves her, and wants to work through their problems. She tells him it is too late.

The next day, Tracy comes to see Thomas again. He succumbs to her charms. They beginning seeing one another. One evening, Thomas tells her how his son died whilst in his care, and though his wife did not blame him, he blamed himself and began to drink heavily, which is why he is teetotal.

Thomas tells his AA sponsor about the relationship. His sponsor tells him to be careful. Thomas goes to see Tracy, and finds out that her parents died in a fire and that she is an only child. She takes anti-depressants for the trauma. Tracy says she has a surprise for him, and that he should get in the bed. She ties him to the bed and pours alcohol into his mouth, getting him drunk.

The next day, Thomas is late to meet his daughter. He is supposed to take her swimming. Tracy takes offense at him not wanting her to meet his daughter. While Thomas is out with Brittany, Tracy sends him an excessive amount of voicemail messages, even threatening to ruin his life.

She goes around to his house to see him, apologising for the messages. While Tracy is at the house, Thomas gets a call. Megan has been in an accident. Thomas tells Tracy he has to go.

He goes to the hospital and stays overnight, sleeping near Megan, who is in a coma. Megan’s mother, Diane (Valerie Pettiford) tells him to go home. She will call him if anything changes.

Thomas finds Tracy still in his home. He breaks up with her even as she refuses to accept it. He returns to the hospital. Megan wakes up. She tells him that she loves him. He asks if she was speeding, and she tells him no, her brakes failed.

Tracy goes to the hospital and gives Brittany a bracelet, telling her that she is her step-mother. The detectives come to talk to Thomas. They got an anonymous tip-off that he cut the brake line in his ex-wife’s car. While Thomas is at the police station, a mysterious man sneaks into Megan’s room in the hospital and post photos of Tracy all around her.

Thomas takes Megan home. Diane takes Brittany out to play. She gets kidnapped. Thomas finds her on the roof of Tracy’s building. While he is getting her back, Tracy goes to Megan’s house and tries to kill her. The police catch her before she can drown her.

Two months later, the police tell Tracy and Megan that Tracy Jacobs is, in fact, Laura Santiago, an escaped psychiatric patient. She was not an only child. She has a brother, who also suffered from mental problems. They both were incarcerated, suspected of killing their parents.

Tracy’s brother frees her from another institution. The end.

We Belong Together is, unsurprisingly, bloody awful. My description of it must seem incomplete and haphazard but, I promise you, it is better than the film. What is good about the film? Nothing.

The story is lazy, uninspired, unoriginal, boring nonsense. The acting is pure B movie level, the worst performance coming from the perennially pouting Michele. The worst thing about her performances is that she looks like she is acting all of the time.

The rest of the cast have been in better films than this, and so can be partially forgiven for taking a payday. Written and directed by Christopher B Stokes, who is better known for music videos, the film is, at least, shot quite well and in focus. So there is that.

The crazed girlfriend is a trope that has been used so many times, that, to make it work, one needs either an excellent script or a subtle, different take on it. This film has neither. The script is terrible, and it is as subtle as a baby screaming for a nappy change, feed, attention, or all three.

It is as if the director pointed the camera at the actors, and gave them an outline of what was meant to happen in the scene, let them improvise it, and went with the first take every single time.

The music is irritatingly ominous at all times, the editing is sloppy, and the focus on Michele’s admittedly not unattractive face, in some misguided attempt to allow us to witness her particular level of crazy, is amateurish.

We Belong Together—a line she shouts in desperation as this pile of poo was drawing to its conclusion—is a car wreck of a film, and one would do well to avoid watching it. You are welcome.