Tyler Perry is back in full force as a cinematic wonder, pulling off things that quite simply shouldn’t work. Creating an inherently theatrical work that requires the in-cinema experience (otherwise you have a Lifetime original movie), the audience I was with was singing his praise at every twist and turn — especially during the story’s big reveal. This is the kind of interactive experience Oogieloves: The Big Balloon Adventure aspires to be and one not unlike a screening of Tommy Wiseau’s The Room (without having to duck at the spoons being thrown your way).
Perry’s films contain a certain kind of power and Temptation is often sublime. We sympathize with Judith (Jurnee Smollett-Bell), who exhibits the kind of behavior a women who married too young without dating might have and she lashes out. Living a teen rebellion as a women in her mid twenties she wears designer clothes (guilt tripped by Kim Kardashian, who plays an an evil fashionista in a role that isn’t as fun as it should be). Everyone in the end gets what they deserve (at least in the Tyler Perry universe), all because they weren’t saved by the presence of Madea, who would have smacked a few folks upside the head.
The film’s performances are strong with Smollett-Bell and Lance Gross as a couple that got married at a young age. He’s a pharmacist; she has a master’s degree and is working at an upscale dating service for Janice (Vanessa Williams). Janice is in the process of closing a deal to expand her business with Harley (Robbie Jones), a Mark Zuckerberg-type, whose life style includes private jets, fast cars, and wife beating. While her husband is a “strong” Christian man, he’s manipulative and dangerous and Perry makes her into a victim of her own circumstance. Perhaps she shouldn’t have gotten married young, but while she goes through her transformation, dressing like a Kardashian, she is never fully in command of her sexuality, nor does she encourage women to be in command. This isn’t a give and take, so much as her being subservient to her man, and ultimately to God.
This is a strange vision of an alternative and perhaps scary universe governed by very strict Christianity, love, narrow-mindedness, rape, domestic abuse and eventually HIV (although not full-blown AIDS), and it’s fascinating. The film opens with narration that’s really not needed, apart from adding a second layer of distance onto the morality tale. A marriage counselor recounts the story of her “sister” to a white woman about to cheat — forget Douglas Sirk, this is one of those 1950’s education reels. Although Perry is attempting to recreate Sirk’s “women’s pictures” (the kind of movies that were made in the 40’s and 50’s and then appeared on TV and radio as soap operas), he is missing the witty mise-en-scene of Sirk.
This is where I have a fundamental problem with Tyler Perry’s Temptation. It’s a soap opera that’s masterfully constructed despite the fact it should not be. Again, Perry pulls off something radical, astounding and exciting. This is one of the boldest films of the year and while I have a fundamental disagreement with it, the film is far from subtle (although useful as a counter balance to the Chris Brown and Rihanna saga) it works for an audience who finds most of what’s going on here sick and those that agree with its message. Tyler Perry Studios has a rare power that I associate with South Park and the US Supreme Court. With a shocking output (on average two films a year), he has the ability to change the course of discussion for what is percolating in pop culture. Brown and Rihanna no doubt are on his mind (in fact Rihanna’s “Love the Way You Lie” is featured in this film’s trailer), and with this power, the sky is the limit for Tyler Perry.
Tyler Perry’s Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor is now in wide release.