Mea Culpa
ミアの事件簿：疑惑のアーティスト
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
A defence attorney sleeps with the artist she is defending; here as the floor of the erotic-thriller revival.
Mea Harper is a criminal defence lawyer in Chicago whose marriage is failing. Her husband, Kal, an anaesthetist, has been unfaithful, lost his job after turning up to work drunk and high, and has contributed nothing for months; his domineering mother, Azalia, who says she has cancer, never lets Mea forget her place. At Azalia's birthday dinner the family learns that Kal's brother, Ray, a prosecutor preparing to run for mayor, will try the case against Zyair Malloy, a celebrated painter accused of murdering his girlfriend, Hydie, whose blood was found on one of his paintings. Zyair asks Mea to defend him. Kal tries to forbid it. She needs the money, and she takes the case.
Zyair insists he was framed and that Ray has a grudge against him. He also sets out to seduce his lawyer. He takes her to an underground club that is really a sex club, and sleeps with a neighbour as she leaves. Her investigator, Jimmy, flies to Mexico to find Hydie's family and finds no trace of them. When Jimmy tells Mea that Kal has checked into a hotel with an old girlfriend, she goes to Zyair and sleeps with him. Next day a gallery owner, Renee, lays out his methods of seduction. At his studio Mea pulls down the portrait of her above his bed and finds other women's faces painted beneath it. She drops the case and confesses the affair to Kal's family.
Fleeing to the Dominican Republic for a few days, Mea sees Hydie alive, working at her hotel; Hydie runs. Ray persuades Mea to come home. At his house she learns that Azalia has no cancer, and finds Zyair's painting of Ray's wife, Charlise, her closest friend. Ray and Azalia staged Hydie's disappearance to punish Zyair and Charlise for their affair and to carry Ray into office. Ordered to kill Mea, Charlise turns on Azalia instead and is stabbed to death. Mea escapes to the highway, where Kal picks her up. Realising he is part of it, she unfastens his seatbelt and steers them into an oncoming lorry; Kal is killed. An anonymous email puts Ray in custody, and Zyair is freed. When he messages her, Mea throws her phone away and walks off.
Starring
Kelly Rowlandas Mea Harper
A Chicago criminal defence lawyer in a failing marriage, who takes on a murder case her brother-in-law is prosecuting.
Mea Harper’s story
Mea keeps the household going: Kal has lost his job and paid nothing for months, and his mother, Azalia, keeps her in her place. Needing the money, she takes Zyair's case against the family's wishes. She resists his advances until she hears that Kal has checked into a hotel with an old girlfriend; then she sleeps with Zyair. When she finds other women's faces painted under her own portrait, she drops the case and confesses. In the Dominican Republic she sees Hydie alive. At Ray's house she uncovers the plot and escapes as Charlise is killed. On the highway, realising Kal is part of it, she unfastens his seatbelt and steers them into an oncoming lorry; he dies. When the freed Zyair messages her, she throws her phone away.
Trevante Rhodesas Zyair Malloy
A celebrated painter accused of murdering his girlfriend, who says he was framed and sets out to seduce his lawyer.
Zyair Malloy’s story
From their first meeting Zyair pushes past Mea's professional guard, insisting that Ray, her brother-in-law, framed him out of a personal grudge. He takes her to what he calls a dance club, which is a sex club, and sleeps with a neighbour as she leaves; he fires her when she will not admit she wants him, and apologises the next day. The night she comes to him, they sleep together, and her portrait hangs above his bed, painted over the faces of earlier women. She drops his case. His story of a frame proves true: Ray and his mother staged Hydie's disappearance to punish Zyair's affair with Ray's wife, Charlise, and to carry Ray into office. An anonymous email puts Ray in custody, and Zyair is freed. He messages Mea; she throws her phone away.
Sean Sagaras Kal Harper
Mea's husband, an anaesthetist out of work, unfaithful and under his domineering mother's influence.
Nick Sagaras Ray
Kal's older brother, an ambitious prosecutor preparing a run for mayor, who is trying Zyair's case.
Shannon Thorntonas Charlise
Ray's wife and Mea's closest friend, who is keeping a secret of her own.
Kerry O'Malleyas Azalia
Kal and Ray's domineering mother, who tells the family she has cancer.
Why it matters
Mea Culpa works in the old form of the erotic thriller, and wears its conventions openly: the lawyer, the dangerous client, the marriage gone cold. Beneath them sit real questions. Mea is the one earning the money in a household where her husband has stopped contributing and his family keeps her in her place, and her desire for Zyair arrives as both a release and a professional ruin. The case she takes is corrupt at its root, a prosecution built by an ambitious man to punish an affair and win an election. Critics were mostly unkind; The New York Times called it a willfully steamy, decidedly silly thriller, while Variety allowed that Tyler Perry knows exactly what his audience wants. As its tagline suggests, everyone in it turns out to be guilty of something, and the title leaves the question hanging of whose fault any of it was.