The Reading A Film Mired By Apathy

The Reading Movie

Is available now on BET+ to watch. The movie casts Mo’Nique as their lead in a black thriller film directed by Courtney Glaude.

Unfortunately, this film falls completely flat. It isn’t interesting and it didn’t evoke any emotion.

Before we begin I want to let you know that this review of The Reading movie will be full of spoilers and that just because I didn’t care for the film doesn’t mean that the film isn’t good or that you may not find it enjoyable. You are more than welcome to watch it on BET+.

I happen to see this movie on my Twitter feed and decided to check it out. I wasn’t doing much and it had Mo’Nique in the movie who has been absent from the movie scene.

I didn’t have any expectations for this movie, but somehow it still ended up being 99 minutes of disappointment.

The Reading Full Movie Plot

Emma Leeden is a widow that lost her whole family to a home invasion. She ends up writing a book about the traumatic event and her manager decides to hire Sky Brown to do a psychic reading for Emma Leeden as a promotion for the book.

Sky Brown and her team are actually con artists that try to swindle money from their clients by giving half-real readings. Their plot when agreeing to do a reading for Ms. Leeden was to up the price to $100,000 instead of the original $20,000 they had agreed to with Ms. Leeden’s manager.

Before the reading happens Sky Brown wants to stop being a con artist and for everyone to find their own path, but she agrees to do Emma’s reading, but it will be her last reading.

When performing the reading Sky gives the most generic surface-level information that even a stranger could provide.

Sky ends up feeling different and Emma walks away during the reading (which never happens at least from my experience from being a reader) because it is too much. While Emma steps away to take a moment Sky voices to the team that she wants to give Emma a real reading to help her even though things do not seem right.

Emma comes back and they complete the reading to find out that there was no home invasion and that Emma killed her own family. Emma goes to her home command center where she can see everything in the house and locks everyone in the home.

It becomes a cat-and-mouse game where Emma is running around like an NFL Quarterback to kill those in her home until she is shot in the face by Sky Brown.

Towards the end, Sky Brown is interviewed about her experience by the same people that were interviewing Emma Leeden about her book. In the end, Sky looks into the camera and it seems that the evil entity that was in Emma is now in her.

The Reading Movie Review

This film gave me nothing.

I didn’t get scared. I didn’t cry. I didn’t even laugh which even bad movies can provide. There are way too many things about this movie that should have been fixed before plopping it on the platform that could have made it worthwhile.

The Storytelling

The pacing of the reading was painful. Especially because the majority of the film is Mo’Nique running around trying to kill everyone which was so boring. They could have cut the chasing part down and used that to develop the beginning of the movie.

If they had spent time giving us a back story on her kids, her husband, and their life dynamics and then led up to the home invasion that would cause the viewer to be emotionally invested so that when the “plot twist” came we would have been shocked.

Let’s be real though, this plot twist was obvious from the jump.

Another thing… What happened to the paranormal elements they played up in the official The Reading trailer? For example in the movie, the feet they hear upstairs when performing the reading there’s no follow-up on that.

Then there are moments where a spirit slides into Emma Leeden (Mo’Nique) at the beginning and when she is killed it enters Sky Brown (Chasity), then at the very end when she looks into the camera during the interview.

The paranormal bit was so forgettable and when you think back and reflect on the movie it causes confusion because they didn’t really flesh this part out.

It makes you wonder if Emma is the evil entity or if was she taken over by an evil entity.

It doesn’t make sense since she says “I killed my family because I wanted to stay rich.” That didn’t make me think she was possessed it just made me think she was the typical true crime villain.

The Dialogue

The dialogue was repetitive and inhuman for example when Sky and her team make it to Emma’s home, Emma tells them everything about the house such as:

“This home is a service killer”
“You can only get service in this one area by the front door”
“I only have one gun”
“I have this security system”
“All the windows are bulletproof”

Who says all of that to people visiting their homes? The cast parrot these points throughout the rest of the movie.

Then the scene where Sky is giving Emma her reading and it is a very generic reading and Emma’s manager says “Isn’t that every black person?” I was like GIRL, WHAT!

But to be fair, she wasn’t wrong.

The Acting

I am sure that Mo’Nique was the highest-paid talent in this movie, but she didn’t really deliver more than the others. She spoke the most, but even from the beginning of the film, you could tell she was acting.

If it wasn’t obvious there then the home invasion scene should have set the bar for the acting. When the bad guy is beating Emma (Mo’Nique) she is on the floor, but somehow he is landing punches while punching mid-air.

Also, Mo’Nique has to speak with impaired speech due to the trauma from the home invasion and you can tell that was difficult for her to do. Then when she changes into her normal murderous self she is just loud. She didn’t make me fear her and I wasn’t scared for those in the house she was trying to kill.

Mo’Nique’s co-stars are just bodies in the movie.

Seriously, anyone could have filled these roles.

Sky Brown’s boyfriend and partner in crime, Greg, when in hiding is so loud. Sky and Greg are in Mo’Nique’s daughter’s room “hiding” because you know she will never check there when you’re just sitting on the bed, he goes “Is she there?” I’m like could you be any louder?

Later in the film, Sky and her friend Jessie are the last ones left and they decide they are going to beat down Emma (Mo’Nique) as they put on thick clothes to provide cushion to lessen the damage if Emma uses her weapons against them.

Sky distracts Emma and then when Emma turns around Jessie is behind her and starts trying to box instead of fighting like someone who is trying to live. The struggle between the two ends with Emma killing Jessie but while Emma is slowly pushing this large knife into Jessie’s chest, Sky just lies on the steps and watches.

She doesn’t get up. She doesn’t even try to do anything.

Sky ends up being so worthless even when she does kill Emma it was all based on luck. She happens to have found one single bullet and the gun to shoot Emma in the face.

The Editing

Parts of the film’s audio were off, but my main issue was the lighting of the film. It was a bit too dark for those with deeper skin tones.

There are scenes where the person dies and they zoom in on their faces and the lighting is even darker. I am not sure if these are stylistic choices, or if this was due to the cameraman’s shadow filling the space due to being so close either way it felt very odd.

The strange sudden transitions. These need to be edited out or refined. Such as when Emma played by Mo’Nique is downstairs it goes dark for a few seconds and then she is running up the stairs which was obviously sped up with editing.

What Are Your Thoughts On The Reading?

My final thoughts on The Reading were that the film needed to be redone. I wouldn’t watch this film out of boredom or a chuckle. It was nothing. However, many people loved the film as you can see in the reviews on Google, IMDb, and other places.

Have you seen The Reading? Are you planning to watch The Reading? Did you remember to cancel your BET+ trial subscription?

I would love to hear what you thought about it and what your favorite parts were. Leave a comment below or tag/message me on Twitter.