This is what happens when censorship gets in the way of a good story.
It got extremely annoying hearing all of the f bombs muted for the simple fact that it was on VH1. Despite the great casting of the leads, Lisa Lopes's complicated story has been severely condensed for the sake of playing it safe and saving time.
The reason why she burned down her boyfriend's house was not just because he had been cheating on her and she was drunk. He had been physically, psychologically and emotionally abusive to her for a long time. The morning of the fire, they had gotten into a huge fight, resulting in her being severely bruised up, and finally snapping when she saw he had brought shoes that were not meant for her. By taking that context out, and focusing only on her alcoholism and not explaining why she was like that, she is repainted just as the media painted her - a drunken crazy woman who was mean to her boyfriend and not a victim.
Lopes was indeed a complex, but intensely rich, vibrant character full of life and nuance. What a shame.
If the subject of the film is such an inconvenience, why tell it in the first place?
It got extremely annoying hearing all of the f bombs muted for the simple fact that it was on VH1. Despite the great casting of the leads, Lisa Lopes's complicated story has been severely condensed for the sake of playing it safe and saving time.
The reason why she burned down her boyfriend's house was not just because he had been cheating on her and she was drunk. He had been physically, psychologically and emotionally abusive to her for a long time. The morning of the fire, they had gotten into a huge fight, resulting in her being severely bruised up, and finally snapping when she saw he had brought shoes that were not meant for her. By taking that context out, and focusing only on her alcoholism and not explaining why she was like that, she is repainted just as the media painted her - a drunken crazy woman who was mean to her boyfriend and not a victim.
Lopes was indeed a complex, but intensely rich, vibrant character full of life and nuance. What a shame.
If the subject of the film is such an inconvenience, why tell it in the first place?