'Forever Rich' Review: Acting makes Netflix's Dutch crime thriller a great watch
Contains spoilers for 'Forever Rich'
'Forever Rich' is the story of Richie (Jonas Smulders) and his journey to becoming the greatest rap artist in the Netherlands. It is Netflix's first original Dutch movie. From the start of the film, it's evident that Richie loves to live life king-size, with parties in fancy places, designer clothing, living with just Apple products and more. While clinking glasses to recent big wins, his assistant Jessica (Yootha Wong-Loi-Sing) calls him to break the news of SONY signing a contract with him: A cheque of a whopping 3 million! Richie can't contain his excitement and informs everyone in his immediate circle, gifting them all with iPhones.
On his way back, he and his buddy Tony (Daniel Kolf) get mugged at the parking lot. The strangers take a video of bloody and beaten Richie and force him to hand over his 50K watch. While on the pursuit to getting back at the goon, Richie finds out that the video is all over the internet.
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In a fit of rage, Richie decides to fight for two things; his watch and his ego. Apparently, you can't put a price on the latter. One of his men gets stabbed while trying to negotiate with the group. Soon enough, Richie realizes he's all on his own.
Over time, Richie comes to an understanding. The longer they have his video out in the pen, the more followers he loses, the fewer people wanting to attend his show. He decides to take matters into his own hands when life kicks him hard.
Just when he thought things couldn't possibly get any worse, he sees a leaked pornographic video of his, all across the internet; the goons had done it. Richie is seen in the video with a different woman, who is not Anna (Sinem Kavus), his wife with whom he has a child, currently. He lies saying the video is an old one but Anna recognizes his tattoo from the video and called his fib. She is devastated beyond measure and leaves him, saying he only cares about money and what people think of him.
Richie gets back at the thieves and nabs one. He gets his stolen stuff back, humiliates the thief on live video, telling his fans that nobody messes with the king, and gets away with it.
The last few minutes of the movie show a slightly still disturbed Richie, who seems to still be processing everything that he went through. He is back in the game now; with money, fame, and his watch, of course, but all of this at what cost? This particular incident crossed so many lines and brought out a terrifying and ugly side of Richie, something he was in denial of all along. It's like they say, "All that glitters is not gold".
The movie is moderately paced, bringing out the true colors in people when their name and fame are on the line. Jonas Smulders has truly done utmost justice to the character of Richie; charming, fearless, and elite.
'Forever Rich' is available to be watched on Netflix.