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"TYLER PERRY'S WHY DID I GET MARRIED?"
(2007) (Tyler Perry, Janet Jackson) (PG-13)

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QUICK TAKE:
Dramedy: Four couples try to sort through their various marital issues while on their annual vacation together.
PLOT:
Patricia (JANET JACKSON) is a successful author about relationships and marriage whose work is based on her own life and that of her friends. Each year, she and her architect husband Gavin (MALIK YOBA) head off on vacation with three other couples where they discuss their marital issues and use each other to help work things out. Joining them again are Shelia (JILL SCOTT) and Mike (RICHARD T. JONES), who don't get along that well since Mike is not happy about her weight. Accordingly, he has invited their single friend, Trina (DENISE BOUTTE), to join them, and it's all too apparent to the others that this arrangement is anything but platonic.

Of course, they aren't alone in struggling through problems. There's also the highly opinionated and outspoken Angela (TASHA SMITH) who constantly puts down her former pro ballplayer husband, Marcus (MICHAEL JAI WHITE), who now works for her at her salon. And pediatrician Terry (TYLER PERRY) is anything but pleased that his lawyer wife Diane (SHARON LEAL) is too busy for him or their young daughter. Meanwhile, Patricia and Gavin find that a past personal tragedy still haunts them and their marriage. With local sheriff Troy (LAMMAN RUCKER) helping them settle into their vacation cabin in the snowy woods, the four couples discuss, complain about, and try to resolve their various interpersonal and relationship issues.

OUR TAKE: 4.5 out of 10
Our new reviewing policy for films that aren't shown in advance to critics is that we'll only provide a paragraph or two about the film's artistic merits or, more accurately, lack thereof. After all, life is too short to spend any more effort than that on a movie that even the releasing studio knows isn't any good (which is why they hid it from reviewers before its release).

The film - based on Tyler Perry's stage play - isn't as bad as most dreck that gets the cold opening treatment. That said, and despite probably being the writer/director/star's most polished effort to date, it still shares problems with its predecessors.

Namely, that's on the nose dialogue (explaining rather than showing character thoughts, motivation, back-story and more), some rough around the edges acting (although not as bad as in the past), and a dramedy-based, sanctimonious view of relationships, particularly cheating men (a theme that pervades most of the filmmaker's works).

Even so, it should appeal to its target audience that, if anything like the paying crowd with which I saw this film, will talk back to the screen and the characters upon it, voicing their pleasure and displeasure with what does and doesn't occur. If that's your idea of entertainment, you may have found your cinematic match made in Heaven (or at least Tyler Perry's world). The film rates as a 4.5 out of 10.




Reviewed October 12, 2007 / Posted October 12, 2007


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