'I Can Do Bad All By Myself' Review...
Tyler Perry has received some criticism about making too many movies that deal with violence and domestic abuse towards women, although I tend to think that his own past experiences with these terrible issues provides more than enough reason for him to approach it so often in his films. What he might be more justifiably criticized for is his mixing of his most famous character Madea in films that deal with such serious issues. Madea, while not remotely original, is an interesting and entertaining character, and at times downright hilarious, but her brand of comedy is just such a bizarre mix with serious emotional drama.Taraji P. Henson plays April, an alcoholic lounge singer with a married boyfriend and an intense aversion to kids, even her own niece and two nephews. When those three are caught trying to steal Madea’s antique VCR, she decides the best course of action for them is to have them go live with April, in the hopes that they will all eventually save each other from psychological oblivion. Soon the local church puts a Mexican immigrant named Sandino into April’s basement to help out around the house in his efforts to make up for past sins of his own, and in the process he reaches out to April and the kids and tries to get them all to see the love that’s right in front of them, just waiting for them to reach out and embrace it.
If that sounds cheesy, it’s because it is, but it’s Tyler’s typical ham-handed delivery of the central theme and the wild emotional ups and downs that occasionally make the movie difficult to tolerate.
But thankfully, Tyler allows some outstanding musical numbers to do some story-telling of their own without letting them halt the movie in its tracks like Beyonce’s totally out of place performance in The Pink Panther. Taraji Henson and Adam Rodriguez, as Sandino both deliver wonderful dramatic performances and have great chemistry together, but unfortunately the characterization is so overdone that it nearly ruins some of the most important scenes in the film.Inspirational dramas like this are generally a little too melodramatic for my taste, although the good ones can be truly moving. I Can Do Bad All By Myself is much more moving than I would have expected from Tyler Perry, but the thickness of some of the characters, specifically April and Jennifer, the oldest of the three kids, definitely tries the patience by the third act. Sandino is portrayed as nothing less than a saint, while Randy, April’s married boyfriend, nothing less than a movie monster. If he had a mask this would be a horror film. I think we get the point without having to be hit over the head with it.
Dr. Phil made a cute cameo in Madea Goes To Jail and it would have been going too far in the sameness department to have him appear again here, but April’s whole story is tailor made for his brand of social intervention. I like the movie’s overall message, but Sandino is just too good, Randy is too bad, and April is too dumb. The movie reaches for and almost achieves some level of real, relevant drama, but these three things, along with Madea’s amusing but distracting comic relief, prevent it from becoming something bigger than it is. And the thorough predictability of the whole thing doesn’t help much either.
Nevertheless, a lot of people have been calling this Tyler Perry’s best movie yet, and I tend to agree. His films haven’t always been well received, but he has a definite fan base and, even though originality in substance or style doesn’t really come into his head much, he has something to say that he really believes in and he should be recognized for it. If he were to tone certain things down in his future films he could really make some good contributions to the cinema.
The Bean Meter
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