A waste of money, barring Kim K

Published May 17, 2013

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Tyler Perry’s Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counsellor

DIRECTOR: Tyler Perry

CAST: Jurnee Smollet-Bell, Lance Gross, Robbie Jones, Brandy Norwood, Vanessa Williams and Kim Kardashian

CLASSIFICATION: 13VS

RUNNING TIME: 109 minutes

RATING: **

It’s not surprising that Tyler Perry has been on the receiving end of a lot of hateration – yes, that’s a word – during his career.

He makes it so easy.

It’s almost as though hate, if we can imagine it as a person, is just sitting in the corner, minding its own business when along comes a TP movie with all its brashness and Bible-bashing.

Occasionally, Perry produces films that are good and, most important, don’t feature Madea. Like The Family That Preys and Good Deeds. But Tyler Perry’s Temptation is not a good movie. It’s funny in places that it shouldn’t be and overdoses on the preachy points. It even makes me want to use words like hateration.

Adapted for the screen from Tyler Perry’s Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counsellor, this movie is based on, well, the confessions of a marriage counsellor.

Jurnee Smollet-Bell, who will always look 17 years old, plays Judith, a woman whose dream is to become a marriage counsellor.

She moves from the country, where she is under the watchful eye of her reverend mother to the big city with her first love and husband, Brice (Lance Gross).

But instead of living her dream, she is stuck as a matchmaker at an agency owned by a flashy, flirtatious woman named Janice, who is played by Williams in what seems to be a bootleg version of her Wilhelmina Slater role in Ugly Betty.

When Judith gets bored with her work and her marriage she meets Harley (Robbie Jones), a social media mogul who is likened to Mark Zuckerburg each time his name is mentioned. Her mind wanders – as do her body parts – and chaos ensues.

The transition from play to film isn’t seamless. There are too many pauses that you wouldn’t experience in real life and the dialogue is laughable. “Sex should be random,” Harley snarls, “like animals.” Child, bye.

Even Brandy, the singer who is a good actress, is almost animated in her acting.

Perry uses the medium of film to allow viewers to see all sides of a story, but then belabours points.

Then there’s Kim K. Surprisingly, Kanye’s baby momma is hilarious! And in a way that we’re laughing with her and not at her, for once. Her fashion-conscious character has funny one-liners and it all works because you don’t, for one second, forget that it’s Kim Kardashian being ridiculous on purpose.

People hated Perry for casting Kim, but what they’ll really be mad at him for is wasting their time and popcorn money.

If you liked any of Tyler Perry’s stage plays on DVD, then you’ll enjoy this.

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