12/25/2022 0 Comments Diary of a mad black woman![]() ![]() This model of strong black maleness treats Helen so perfectly the viewer is lulled into ennui. Perry dances around the issue by turning this subplot into a storybook romance and not giving Orlando any bad qualities whatsoever. That’s less interesting than Helen wondering whether she should romance working-class hunk Orlando (Shemar Moore) when she’s still a Christian committed to her not-so-successful marriage. Will he recognize the error of his ways and recover the ability to walk again through God’s miracle? Not before she pushes him into the hot tub and nearly drowns him in the name of slapstick guffaws. The grand scale nervous breakdown implicit in the film’s title never fully gets realized, and the best we get is Helen domineering her husband after the contrivances of the plot have him ending up in a wheelchair. ![]() With no money, no prospects, and no claim of ownership over her husband’s possessions when he files for divorce, Helen is forced to return to her goofball family in the hood and, of course, her faith in Christian morality. It’s a pity, since the film’s setup allows for the possibility for a genuine ethical struggle.īig-shot Atlanta attorney Charles McCarther (Steve Harris) kicks loving wife Helen (Kimberly Elise) out of the mansion when he succumbs to another woman. That’s the world of Diary of a Mad Black Woman. The good people are good, even if they’re temporarily misguided in the name of slapstick comedy, and the bad people are good too if they follow Christ’s teachings (otherwise they’re just bad, and easily disposable). But audiences won’t be grappling with faith they’ll be swallowing it in a format that negates independent thought or the myriad gray-zone of human relationships. Considering the success of pro-Christ films in today’s red state market, he may well be right. To wit: God is great, follow the Ten Commandments, and it’s okay to bend the rules a little (in the name of crass comic relief or excruciating violence) as long as everything turns out wholesome in the end.Īwesomely popular within the Christian community, Perry’s film adaptation clearly preaches to the converted while presupposing its TV-sitcom humor will win (or convert) new fans. Those spiritual values will go down easier here than Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, since none of the characters are whipped into filet mignon, but the message remains the same. In other words, card-carrying existentialists might want to avoid Diary of a Mad Black Woman, the feature film adaptation of Perry’s “positive values” play. This routine lowbrow comedy gets shuffled in with simplistic, one-dimensional moral lessons for the urban community, such as having a recovering drug addict go straight when she sings in the gospel choir. Tyler Perry’s plays bring the message of Jesus Christ along with some slapstick comedy involving farts, pot-smoking grandmothers who carry handguns in their purses, horny old men, and Mr. ![]()
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