It's the stuff of near Hollywood legend, and at minimum, it has the makings of an interesting sounding movie. A playwright struggles for years without success, including a stint of being homeless (talk about your starving artist) while trying to attract audiences to his work. Then, the right person walks in at the right time, becomes a backer and then when the sparsely received play is about to close, it suddenly becomes a sell-out attraction. The rest is history as the playwright goes on to great success.
The curtain drops and that would seem to be the perfect Cinderella ending for Tyler Perry's story. Who knows how much of that's true and how much is hype, but it's a great underdog tale. Unfortunately, it doesn't end there. Using one of the works that propelled him to stardom in the theater world -- "Diary of a Mad Black Woman" -- Perry now hits the big screen in the film of the same name where he not only serves as the screenwriter, but also appears in the roles of three separate characters.
The result is a mess of a movie, a dramedy that misfires in just about every way imaginable. As directed by Darren R. Grant (making his feature debut), the film lurches back and forth between melodrama and romance to the film world's view of black comedy (meaning race and not edginess).
Given the title and general premise, I was expecting far more than what the film delivers, at least in terms of quality. Of course, the title could elicit ugly stereotypes of women of that race. Unfortunately, that's exactly what it offers, although that's far truer regarding the "comedy" than the drama.
Apparently thinking he's the next Eddie Murphy and/or Martin Lawrence, Perry not only plays a regular guy, but also a stereotypically lecherous old man (like Murphy's done) and a large, highly opinionated black grandmother (think of "Big Momma's House").
"She," of course, is really just Perry in drag, but here's the weird thing -- that's not part of the plot (as in being a guy in disguise). Instead, it's an ego trip gone dangerously out of control with the writer apparently thinking he's a hoot playing that part. Methinks he's probably alone in that assumption. In fact, he -- and thus the picture -- is so bad that I'd rather sit through a double feature of "The Adventures of Pluto Nash" and "Black Knight" before stepping anywhere near this travesty again.
Yes, it's that bad. While I rarely want to leave any film during its screening, this was one of the exceptions. The problem is that the drama doesn't fare much better than the purported comedy. While not quite of the "what were they thinking variety," it's just as messy and unbelievable as its genre counterpart.
The filmmakers could have gone the pure Lifetime TV route or a black comedy one along the lines of "First Wives Club" or "The War of the Roses." Instead, they went for over the top melodrama and unconvincing romance where the various elements of both don't ever seem or feel believable. In short, the material -- whether the one-dimensional monster husband character, the way the protagonist treats her knight in shining armor (and the fact that he lets her) or subplots featuring a junkie sister, criminal suspect and more -- just doesn't gel.
Everything feels discombobulated and random, resulting in it being difficult for the viewer to get involved in the story, the main character or her plight. Even the voice-over narrated "dear diary" bits don't add anything to the offering in terms of exposition, insight or charm, and they only occasionally appear.
Considering all of that, the subpar direction and character construction, the performers don't have a chance of succeeding in their respective parts. That includes Kimberly Elise ("The Manchurian Candidate," "Beloved") as the jilted wife; Steve Harris ("Bringing Down the House," "Minority Report") as the one-dimensionally mean husband, or Shemar Moore ("The Brothers," "Hav Plenty") embodying the guy who's too good to be true (in terms of looks, demeanor and most every other aspect).
Cicely Tyson ("Because of Winn-Dixie," "Sounder") makes a brief appearance, but can't save this mess, while Lisa Marcos ("The Gospel of John") and Gary Sturgis ("Blaze") can't do anything with their caricature parts. And the less said about Perry in his triad of roles, the better, although he's passable in regular guy mode.
While the film has some interesting points to explore -- including forgiveness and redemption -- and ends on a strong religious point, none of that means it's automatically good. Clunky in execution when not a cinematic travesty in the making, this is a mess of a film that doesn't work on any level. You should give a wide berth to this "Diary of a Mad Black Woman." The film rates as a 1 out of 10.
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