During the holiday break, I decided to watch a few new movies on Netflix. One of the movies I came across was Krystal.
This movie caught my attention because the poster Netflix had displayed on its site, showed two actors I had already been familiar with, Nick Robinson (Everything, Everything, and Love, Simon) and Rosario Dawson (Seven Pounds and Rent).
The plot of the film alone did not interest me enough to want to watch it. It honestly reminded me of a 1998 film called How Stella Got Her Groove Back starring Angela Bassett.
However, I did not want to judge a book by its cover, so I stayed up to watch it one night. But I was not expecting the film we ended up getting.
Before I begin my review, I would like to give you guys a summary of the movie. The film is about an 18-year-old boy named Taylor (Robinson) who falls in love with a former alcoholic hooker/stripper named Krystal (Dawson) and joins an Alcoholic Anonymous group to get her to notice him.
So, what was wrong with this film? For me, this film just felt all over the place and had unlikeable characters.
The fact that Taylor is so head-over-heels for Krystal, who is in her thirties and has a high school aged son, is something I can not pass.
Not only that, but he begins to change his image to appear as a bad boy and pretends to be an alcoholic to impress her, but for the most part, she seems uninterested in his advances.
Why he is so persistent on getting this woman to fall in love with him is above me. I thought this was more annoying, and kind of creepy, than romantic.
Also, rapper T.I. is added to the picture as Krystal’s no good ex-boyfriend and taunts Taylor and Krystal’s son, Bobby, while aimlessly trying to get her back.
I can not take him seriously in this role, but maybe it’s the direction director William H. Macy (who played Taylor’s dad in the film) was going for, since this is a comedy-drama movie.
However, I find his character more annoying and forgettable, than compelling.
The only decent character to me iss Kathy Bates, and she only got limited screen time compared to everyone else in this film.
I feel like the film would have worked more if it was a drama rather than a comedy-drama because Taylor has a unique heart condition that tends to bother him when he is excited or anxious which would have made for a more moving story.
I understand why the movie had comedy in it. And I admit, I did laugh a few times during the beginning of the film and unintentionally during the second half of it. However, the film would have worked more if it handled the touchy subject materials more seriously.
All in all, this movie was not at all what I was expecting. Despite a cast of likable actors/actresses, this movie fell flat on every conceivable level. And that’s putting it nicely.