Nerve Review: 6 Ups & 5 Downs

3. There's A Mostly Pointless Dead Brother Subplot

A subplot hanging around Nerve's periphery is the death of Roberts' older brother two years prior to the movie's events. It's strangely never revealed how he died, only that he was a risk-taker and a good deal more "fun" than his younger sister.

It feels like this is going to lead to some sort of payoff, possibly that the brother actually died playing Nerve, but instead it's just kinda forgotten about except when a character wants to take a cheap shot at Roberts for her loss.

You can argue that having a dead brother deepens the bond she has with her mother (played by Juliette Lewis) and her desire to leave home for college, but it doesn't really have much psychological depth and feels like something that probably should've been shaved off the script in drafting. It adds very little and feels woefully tacked-on.