Tired of eloquently written, constructive and intriguing movies? Why not hate-watch a movie with a difference? Deadly Illusions (2021) is a Netflix mystery  thriller drama, written and directed by Anna Elizabeth James, starring Kristin Davis (Mary Morris) and Greer Grammer (Grace). The film was shot in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 2019. 

The film Deadly Illusions, tells a tale of a bestselling female novelist, who  in distress of writer’s block, hires an innocent young woman to look after her twin children. While she loses herself in her new first-class seller novel to make money back after her husband’s risky business deal falls through, She later has to choose  between the reality she’s living and the life she’s writing. 

Deadly Illusions depicts the unsettling relationship between a Boss, Mary and her Nanny, Grace. Throughout the 114 minutes movie, we are forced to watch the shoved romance between the two characters, Mary and Grace as they gradually set about their secret affairs which appear to be disturbing and creepy. The downside of this is Grace’s character is perceived as a doll like  yet seductive child. This weirdly attracts Mary to her, both maternally and sexually.  This becomes one of the most alarming concepts of the movie,as we see Mary and Grace go  lingerie shopping together after one day of knowing each other. 

Apart from Mary, other characters like Tom, played by Dermont Mulroney also find Grace innocent and childlike character attractive to the point where he has a sexual encounter with her. However, Mary also hallucinates about sensual fantasies with Grace. 

Besides the movie being poorly edited with fading transitions that look similar to movies in the early 2000s, the movie was also overly foreshadowed. This left little to no mystery at the end. However, some of the audience seemed to be shocked about the out-of-body experiences that Mary suffers with as a writer, which surprisingly was also found in Grace, as she is portrayed to be the villain. It is clear that she has a split personality, with Grace being an innocent young girl and Margret being a sassy murderous woman. 

Nevertheless, we are left with a plot hole that doesn’t explain the main idea of this film, which most viewers believe could be mental illness. We are left with a lot of misconceptions about people who deal with mental illnesses/disorders similar to the one viewers just witnessed. Which begs the question, does having a disorder cause you to act in a violent manner? 

The rating of the movie, ‘Deadly Illusions’ on IMDb is 3.5/10 with reviews of the movie containing so many plot holes and being boring. A movie like this would be suitable to be on streaming service like Lifetime.