When I first clicked on Catch.er on Netflix, it seemed like a sweet reprieve because I had just come from watching Cameroon’s Netflix debut film Therapy, which was a different level of bad. But just because something is better does not mean it’s good and I quickly realized this with Catch.er.
Catch.er is a 2017 catch-the-killer movie, a typical whodunnit. But in its 80-minute run-time, it manages to dispel any interest you had in finding the killer. This is not going to be a long review so let’s just get into it.
Plot
When an ambitious career woman Abby (Beverly Naya) is found murdered on her wedding anniversary, her husband becomes the prime suspect. However, a police investigation unearths others in her life who may also have strong motives.
Cast
The 2017 Walter Taylaur film stars Beverly Naya, O.C Ukeje, Alex Ekubo, Blossom Chukwujekwu, Omowunmi Dada, Gbenro Ajibade, Kiki Omeili, Tope Tedela and Wofai Fada.
Review
The first thing to note about Catch.er is that it is a very basic story that should be easy to pull off with proper direction. But the director makes a series of very bad decisions that lands this film in the unmemorable category and then attempts to redeem it with a “shocking” plot twist. Here’s a list of those bad decisions.
1. Lack of characterisation
I would not be wrong to assume that every character in this film is a bumbling idiot because all the murder suspects basically rat themselves out to the police and volunteer information unprovoked. The characters are not individuals; they just exist to feed you the plot.
We learn nothing about what the characters are like outside of the day of Abby’s death and this severs any connection anyone might have subconsciously mounted at the end of the film. Simply put, we stop caring about any character after their first scene. There is no one to root for or stand against because there are no real people in this film.
The supporting characters even have more personality than the main characters and this is the one case where the comedic relief (Wofai Fada) actually helped the story because it was so empty.
The worst victim of this was the victim in the story, Abby, played by Beverly Naya. Honestly, the real crime here is that filmmakers gravely underestimate Naya’s acting skills and never give her enough to work with. As a central character to the story, they don’t even flesh her out beside her being a rule follower and having a really bad day.
The movie was supposed to give us a victim worth mourning, a lovable character whose death provokes anger and maybe even curiosity for who would snuff out such a light. But she really was nothing more than a rich woman surrounded by shitty men who had a particularly shitty day. So we don’t care. Beverly Naya deserves better.
2. “Crime drama”
Catch.er claims to be a crime drama but doesn’t give the audience any clues to put together. Instead, it slobbers from suspect to suspect; dancing around like there is not an unsolved murder on ground. The detective doesn’t make any smart deductions here. He just stews over the very obvious incriminating statements by the suspects.
All the evidence he gathers goes nowhere. There are a lot of loose ends that are not even worth going into and the lack of respect for the audience’s intelligence just makes this movie a terrible watch.
With two convincing suspects, the detective would have had to find definitive proof that both of them were innocent to heighten the tension and make us have to look back at all the clues. This is what proper direction would have done for this film. But what Catch.er gives us instead is an incestuous murderer out of nowhere who describes the murder weapon which conveniently has his fingerprints on it. Stupid.
3. Cinematography
When it came to the cinematography, the filmmakers really made a choice with this one. The constant shaking of the camera, the flashbacks, and pale colour grading are meant to provoke emotions that aren’t even there. There is no tension so the choice to do that with the movie just makes it look like someone’s experimenting with filters on a class project.
All in all, this movie failed to deliver because it zoomed through the shortcuts instead of suspensefully taking us through the scenic route; which is the point of a crime drama. It’s an okay movie to play in the background but it’s definitely not good enough for movie night.