written and directed by Tyler Perry
starring Gabrielle Union, Idris Elba, Louis Gossett Jr., Tasha Smith, Gary Anthony Sturgis, Tracee Ellis Ross, Malinda Williams, Terri J Vaughn
In a town haunted with the dealings of a nasty drug hustler, one man struggles to maintain a righteous posture while supporting his three little girls.
Monty (Elba) is a mechanic who dreams of owning his own shop one day. His boss is the kindly Willie (Gossett Jr.) to whom he has been attempting to make down payments on the place although his funds or scant as he’s been supporting his girls due to the non-participation of deadbeat mom Jennifer (Smith). Jennifer lives with an unsavory character named Joseph who is perpetually arrested but keeps getting off because nobody in the neighborhood will testify against him.
This film is exceedingly simplistic in that it presents such a clear contrast between the good and the bad. So much so that the audience merely tunes out because the conflict is so straightforward that there are no nuances to keep the imagination active. It’s obvious from the start that Joseph is a bad apple utterly loathed by his community and that eventually justice will be served. It’s also readily apparent that once Monty meets Julia (Union), sparks will inevitably fly and everyone will go home singing hosannas to the trees. There is no mystery here and it’s only the performances that make this film watchable.
Julia is a trial lawyer who is known as something of a barracuda in court. When we first meet her she’s hard, uptight, and utterly dedicated to her work. She hasn’t had a man in a while and laments the forced blind dates her friends Cynthia (Ross) and Brenda (Vaughn) keep setting her up on. So, when Monty becomes her personal driver it’s clear that there will be tension followed immediately by kissy face nausea. Although her friends loath the idea of Julia dating a man so obviously beneath her, she trudges on and defies them with what eventually turns out to be a strong love for the man.
Monty is also an ex-con who screwed a seventeen year old girl who told him she was eighteen. Perhaps because he was black Monty was strung up for eight long years after the father caught them in flagrante delicto. But Monty recovered and has made something of himself despite the obstacle of being a known felon. It’s important for the film that he become something strong and definitive for his children who look upon him for guidance and substance. The key conflict in the film arises when one of the girls sets a fire inside Monty’s apartment after he has left them alone. Child Protective services get involved and give Jennifer custody despite the fact that she is a no good skank drug fiend who doesn’t care one iota for their safety and well being. She allows Joseph to blackmail the eldest child into running dope into her school by telling her he’ll kill her father if she doesn’t. He beats the youngest and leaves obvious bruises on her shoulders which any CPS agent would notice and raise the alarm or so one would think. Perhaps this film can be read as a critique of the CPS who are labeled as not caring for the children all that much.
Being a Tyler Perry film there is a distinct Christian tone throughout this picture. Monty is presented as a God-fearing man who dutifully goes to church and tries to live his life in accordance to biblical principles of good-will and submission. He merely wants to do the right thing by his girls without too many complications barring his progress. There are a couple of long sequences in church where singers praise their God and offer a firm backbone for the story as it unfolds. It’s a story about redemption after a fashion as Monty eventually cures a nasty societal ill in the only way that makes sense to him. Naturally, this singular act effects the entire community and brings things to a nice, tidy end that leaves all the good, humble people mightily fulfilled. Still, there is no mystery here and in its place simply a rather pedestrian moral about staying true to God and avoiding the trappings that befall those who refuse to accept God’s will in their life. Jennifer and Joseph are so demonstrably foul in everything they do that it isn’t a surprise to anyone when their sordid amusements come back to haunt them in the end.
Wanton greed and vice are demonized here in such a way that there is a clear divide between those who succumb to them and those who do not. The drug lord/pimp is presented as an absolute scourge to the community, a cancer that must be eradicated because he is single handedly causing so much tumult and grief. Yet, early on he’s allowed to prosper because so much fear wracks those who could otherwise offer assistance in facilitating his incarceration. Perry’s intention here is to demonstrate how a lost soul sick with his own glory has become something gross and fearsome for an entire community who live scared, half lives because of his existence. They are merely running from the devil toward God because they feel they have no alternative and cannot bear what they imagine would be a terrible price for their boldness in confronting him.
The innocence of the girls is held up as some kind of ideal state. Joseph tries to steal this from them by abusing them in a variety of ways but the film naturally stands up against this. The film concedes that there are sinister forces in the world that threaten the common decency of good folk who simply want to be left to worship in their own way without having to be confronted with human blight and the horrors that they wreak. In this film goodness is rewarded and it’s antithesis is duly shot down as a clear example of what a life that is disagreeable with God ends up like. There is not a single gesture by Joseph and Jennifer that makes them out to be anything other than scoundrels. It’s a shame that they do not possess even a modicum of decency because it might have made the overall story arc less tedious in the end. One fully knows what is coming even if the method employed isn’t so readily telegraphed.
Monty and Joe are two men who have taken very different routes in formulating their lives. In a sense their plights can be seen as an example of how the Christian God is known to test adherents through various struggles and trials and how perseverance in the end wins out if one maintain’s faith throughout the ordeals. Monty is presented as a long-suffering believer who the film argues is deserving of the blessings that are rightfully his after being falsely accused and subsequently locked up. Joe is a man who has not seen the light and continues to live selfishly at the expense of others, including children. He is a one-dimensional fiend who exploits others for his own gain and in the lexicon of this film there is only one place fit for such a man.
The performances in this film are all quite good. Gabrielle Union plays the softening of Julia with a considerable amount of grace. She captures the pent up sexual frustration that drives her character into her work at the expense of a personal life. She gives Julia an inner intensity that she slowly releases once she finds a man she can be comfortable around. Idris Elba is a formidable force of quiet integrity in this film. He carries himself with a gentleness that is so necessary if the audience is to sympathize with him. Elbla moves with assurance throughout the film and demonstrates a calm that carries the film effortlessly. Louis Gossett Jr. is simply totemic and gentle in his understated role as a strong male mentor for Monty. Gossett Jr. doesn’t have to say all that much as his presence provides a strong touchstone for the film. Tasha Smith captures her character’s unwholesomeness with disturbing clarity. Jennifer has so readily given herself up to a lifestyle that is vile and degrading. Smith is astonishingly apt and conveying a slimy petulance that works well within the context of the film. Gary Anthony Sturgis hams it up as the unsavory drug dealer who sucks the life out of every room he enters. His character is base but not glamorous which is certainly intentional and reflects Perry’s overarching aversion to creating characters who are both vile and presentable.
Overall, this film manages to capture the psychological tortures afflicting its main characters. However, the overall plot too readily paints a situation that is such an obvious dichotomy that it’s difficult to fully engage in the material. It’s merely a case of wholesomeness versus depravity and there is no catharsis in the end because nothing has been invested in the story. It’s all too clear where the film is headed so by the end it doesn’t matter much how it is resolved. The saving grace of this film is the performances which are natural and slightly elevated above the material. Ultimately, the message is too pat and the plot too unsophisticated to retain much interest.
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