Tyler Perry's Madea's Family Reunion

Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Family Reunion
directed by Tyler Perry and Elvin Ross
written by Tyler Perry
starring Tyler Perry, Isaac Caree, Sonya Evans, D’Atra Hicks, Gary Jenkins, Pebbles Johnson, David Mann, Tamela J. Mann, Mike Storm, Zakiya Williams, Terrell Philips

Madea’s packing heat and smacking down anyone fool enough to question her perfect tyranny of order and substance. The play features a funeral and wedding wrapped around the throat of a family reunion. Along the way life lessons are taught, emotional mayhem reigns, and basic confusions are remedied.

Madea’s (Perry) granddaughter Lisa (Evans) is getting married to the abusive but terribly wealthy Ronnie (Storm) despite having not killed her feelings for Madea’s handyman A.J. (Jenkins). It’s one of a number of thick emotional knots that Perry gradually works out over the course of this production. Throughout there is a considerable amount of melodrama that emerges between the cracks and Perry manages to keep each life afloat over the course of the narrative. Through it all, is the totemic presence of Madea who represents a swift, hard slap upside the face to anyone’s whose feeling uppity.

The story itself involves a series of life ailments that afflict each of the characters in various measures. There is the ubiquitous crack whore Tina (Williams) who drags a baby along she just doesn’t have enough sense to care for properly. Madea’s other granddaughter Jackie (Hicks) is married to an ex-con named Kevin (Philips) and their little garden is upset when Tina comes on to Kevin and then accuses him of trying to rape her. Money and jewels go missing and it’s fairly clear that Tina is responsible for the thefts.

The play is populated with a number of gospel-tinged songs that enhance the thrust of the narrative. They are either spiritual or sentimental in nature and they manage to slow things down considerably, affording the audience the opportunity to prepare themselves for the next assault. The songs serve at touchstones that provide a considerable amount of grounding that is necessary as personalities claw at each other through various disturbances. The spiritual songs most certainly promote a very specific point of view which is paramount to fully gaining a firm understanding of the play’s intent. This is a celebration of God’s love and it informs every utterance, every note. The play is a declaration of joy, of family, and remaining true to God’s word. Certainly there are moments of strife, disillusion, pain and sorrow but in the end it all comes down to a militant spiritual core that is necessary for defeating life’s myriad demons.

The play does often feel like an exaggerated soap opera replete with grand displays of emotion and histrionics. There is always a feeling that the key issues will be resolved and that the overarching emotional content will lead to something approaching catharsis. In this play, the reunion is really just an excuse to bring together a great number of relatives from near and far. It’s a chance for the clan to ease out of their personal torments and simply enjoy each other’s company. The bulk of the play deals with strained relations and conflicts of interest.

Nothing particularly strange or unnerving happens in this play as it reflects a generic, easily digestible series of scenarios that are assimilable for the audience and easily comprehended. Everything put forth in this play is readily accessible and simply rendered. The emotions are complicated but the presentation of these emotions is absurdly simple. Also, the moral of each play is never remotely ambiguous. Everything is seen through the prisms of Christian salvation and there is a tremendous amount of giving thanks to various degrees in nearly every scene. Still, there is also a less religious aspect to this play that relates to the necessity of remaining honest to oneself and one’s values. Lisa is torn between the more humble man who can express what she does for him and one who is more financially solvent but who treats her like a trophy. It’s a classic posture for Perry as the superficially upstanding man seems to be a ready made theme in his productions. He looks for all the world like a successful, focused businessman who knows how to properly take care of things. Rather, he’s a self-centered punk who doesn’t know how to treat his woman in the right way and is in fact abusive.

Overall, Tyler Perry delivers another solid, Christian-orientated play replete with inspirational music and a clear cut message about putting one’s life in order so that it is centered around Christ and the godly path. There are also elements that deal with caring for each other despite seeming differences that threaten to eternally sever the ties that bind. These are over the top characters who behave in extreme ways and the result is a consistently funny appraisal of the intricacies that are inherent in any familial relationship dynamic. Madea is a divining rod who always finds the most volatile aspects of any situation and exploits them for her own fun and profit. She is insulting, coarse and vulgar yet her intent is pure and she always manages to do precisely the right thing when it is most needed.