As I mentioned in the Bamboozled review, I give Tyler Perry a pass despite all the hate he gets on the internet for a reason. The fact is that the very reason Tyler came into mainstream popularity in the last decade is because while black movies during the 90s and early 2000s were still making movies about upper-middle to middle class black people, the ignored demographic of working class and devoutly religious black people were getting served via plays by the likes of people like Perry and David E Talbert. And in turn, when Tyler started making movies (That he funded himself just off the plays) he came into the mainstream with an already solid fanbase.
Frankly, everyone is entitled to their opinion, but the two main schools of thought that tend to lead to hate of Perry’s work is either black people who really are a slave to white respectability or black people with a very afrocentric, eccentric and ultimately esoteric idea of what blackness should be that they only can defend by saying that anyone that opposes them are people who fit into the first category. But really, Tyler Perry to me has a right to exist in black entertainment just as really any annoying entertainer I can think of does. I will admit I had to come to terms with this during an argument with friends about Kodak Black, but I realize this nonetheless.
But when it comes to Perry’s works, I have to say that while enjoy a good Madea movie here and there, I do enjoy when he attempts to branch out and make dramas that are more serious. “Family that preys” comes to mind although it does feature Perry in an ugly ass wig. “Daddys’ little girls” was actually legit heartwarming. Then there's this movie.
Temptation isn’t so much bad as it's him attempting to take one of his old plays and adapt in for today in a way that causes it to trip over its shoelaces. The movie stars Jurnee Smollett-Bell, sister of the guy who plays Jamal on “Empire”. And for the 3rd time, Lance Gross stars in a Tyler Perry production where surprisingly he isn’t an asshole (ya know, cause Tyler tends to make dark skinned guys D-bags in his movies)
The movie starts by attempting to pull shitty twist by thinking we wouldn’t figure out that the therapist at the beginning of the film was main character judith. The couple she counseling, in all honesty, just needs to break up. Also, fuck you Tyler for giving Judith Batman Level deduction skills to where she figured out that this woman is cheating THAT easily. Anyway, we cut to the beginning of what is apparently one big flashback and see that Judith is from Belvidere (No confirmation on if they mean North Carolina or Tennessee) and was raised in the church. This is also where she meets the love of her life, Bryce, who at one point has an ugly ass Flattop. Soon, Bryce decides to ask for her hand in marriage, and because her mom probably realizes that Bryce is about as benign of a guy that she’ll meet around there that Judith actually likes, she says yes. They get married and move to Southwest DC. I’m completely guessing on that last part.
So, we cut away from the exposition voice-over to see Judith at her job, where she has to work with not only Vanessa Williams with a clear as day fake french accent, But also Kanye Wests’ wife. Seriously, Kim Kardashian is in this, and somewhere in the afterlife, Robert Kardashian is giving the face that Booker T gave after he accidentally yelled “We comin for you, Nigga!” we also get to meet Harley, which I have to say that as far a black bad guy names go…Harley? Couldn’t have picked something simple like David, or Richard, or Michael. Something less...DC comics-ish. So, Harley, a social media millionaire, reveals that he needs judith's help to make Not OkCupid. Meanwhile, at Bryce’s job as a pharmacist, Brandy Flipping Norwood shows up and plays a woman who's clearly lying about her past. Also, this old ass woman is annoying as shit. Also, its good to see that Bryce doesn’t give a shit if shes gay.
Back at the office, we see Harley mulling over the idea of setting up a new dating site while slowly sliding his dick across the table to Judith. Seriously, its that obvious. At home, Judith complains about her job to her husband, and he decides to make her feel better by taking her to golden corral. They can’t say it as clearly it would have cost too much, but you know that's where they went. Afterwards, she gets stret harassed by 4 dudes, Bryce decides to walk away and she gets mad because he didn’t square up on them. I say this the most respectful way I can to women, but show me a man who will fight EVERY guy who disrespects his woman, and I will show you an unabashed psychopath who will eventually turn on her. But of course, if this were discussed on Twitter, there would be all these tweets about how black men don’t stick up for black women with a chorus of gay dudes backing them up. I only mention the gay guys cause that the main dudes I see defending this kinda shit. That and Panth__R.
The next day, Harley tests Judith skills and the program by filling it out himself And essentially hands her a bouquet of red flags. Meanwhile, Brandy runs home from work paranoid, and Judith proves that she clearly is sexually underwhelmed as Harley pokes holes in her defence about not wanting to be more sexually open. Let me take this time out to say that this right here is why I can never trust women who seriously want to wait till marriage for sex. Because the conditioning that keeps someone even into adulthood thinking that people should only have sex either drives them crazy (not unlike her mom) or it deteriorates greatly post loss of virginity. Seriously, I’ve met many a guy who dated a woman who said they should wait till marriage, only for her to leave him for a guy that clearly didn’t care about if people thought they were going to hell. In short, the flesh is weak. Just fuck one person, but don’t let marriage weigh you down.
After Judiths’ awkward attempt and getting freaky, She decides to go for a run to PURPOSELY run into Harley, gets injured by a bike rider and proves my earlier point about the street harassers. More on that later. He takes her home and tries to put the moves on her and fails like a motherfucker. After the scene of Tyler Wanting to look at Lance Gross wet without a shirt on, we see Judith at work on her birthday and finds out Harley sent her flowers. She goes home only to find that Bryce has forgotten, and he tries to make it up to her by recreating the “try a little tenderness” scene from pretty in pink, without a shirt and in the most goofy way possible. Afterwards, Harley decides to take Judith on a plane to New Orleans and despite the madame warning that basically sounds like “do what you have to do to not get raped” she still goes. At the very least, her boss should have sent more than just her if she felt she might be in danger, but what the fuck do I know? Also, they cut to brandy sounding scared because she heard her ex thats TOTALLY not Harley come in the store.
And of course, after a whirlwind tour through New Orleans and drinking, they get back on the plane, and after a few drinks Harley decides to put in the moves to try and fuck a happily married woman. And clearly starts assaulting her. And thus comes the most confusing line of the whole movie: “Now you can say you resisted” Which leaves me to ask, Tyler, have you EVER in your life tried to get sex from a woman? Cause this is the kind of writing that you get from a pre-pubescent boy who reads his mother's harlequin novels. Afterwards, we cut to Harley dropping of Judith at her house and in no short words saying that she doesn’t wanna see him again. And right as the two are clearly yelling in the street, Bryce and Judith’s mother drive up and awkwardly introduce themselves to Harley. After that, we see Judith having flashbacks to on the plane to the...consensual?...sex her and Harley had? I mean, Consent under duress is still rape right? Right?
We cut to Judith’s mother making them dinner and right off the bat, she annoys me. Granted, this is because I was raised by a hyper religious woman myself that doesn’t know when to quit, but that's neither here nor there. The next day, we see Judith getting called to Harley’s house so they can fuck again, and after doing coke and eating fruit, he proposes starting up her practice for marriage counseling, but the catch is that she has to leave her husband. Let me reiterate: He wants to help a married woman start of a marriage counseling practice, but she has to ruin HER marriage before that's done. Of course, she refuses and leaves. Then, while still high as 2004 gas prices, she comes home to take a shower and is confronted by her mom. And then the argument I feel every girl who is raised by a mom who purposely tries to stuff them down into that traditional role will have or needs to have. Seriously, it’s pretty much revealed that her mother lied for years about her father being dead and that even Judith think she's nuttier than a Skippy Factory.
After this they cut to a montage accompanied by a song by Jazmine Sullivan. I’ll just say this about her: she confounds me. My brain says that all her music screams nutjob and that whole eulogizing a dead man by talking how she regularly curved him says narcissistic. But I want to do things to her that you’d have to go on Xtube to watch a man do to a woman.
Can you really blame me?
Seriously, this montage essentially serves as exposition to the fact that she's cuckolding her husband and afterwards gets fired because she and Harley decide to open a practice together instead of working with Vanessa Williams. Meanwhile, Bryce is slowly going crazy because he’s losing the love of his life right in front of his eyes and when he decides to go to Harley’s house to confront him about the affair, reality Backhands him like Big Red in “The Five Heartbeats” Not only is his wife clearly laid up with Harley while lit AF, but when he gets her outside to beg her to come home, she brutally breaks up with him in the most short and effective way this side of texting. As someone who just went through a breakup, I gotta say, the line of “I will help you pack your shit” was satisfying. After having Brandy comfort him in his time of hurt, we cut to Harley and Judith coming to get her laptop and of course, Judith’s mother is holding a prayer circle in the living room. As someone who’s been subjected to these sorts of things, I have to say that I get why this made Harley laugh. Although that wasn’t cool of him to knock her mom down. It REALLY wasn’t cool for him to start beating Judith down after she decides to leave. But the apex, the moment when the movie itself has just a orgasm of dramatics is when not only do we find out that Brandy’s character has HIV, but we learn that she got it from Harley, and Bryce drives up to the house, shoulders the door and proceeds to beat the piss out of Harley, but not before carrying his wife out of the house. And it's at this point, the movie slouches in the chair before it gets ready to clean itself off.
The movie ends by cutting back to the counseling office with the young wife that future Judith was telling this story to and confirms that she got HIV but Bryce didn’t. She pledges to stop cheating on her husband, and the movie ends on Judith getting her medicine from the Pharmacy Bryce now owns and seeing his new wife and son. She walks away as a sad, sad song plays. Credits.
I,ll say it again, I don’t hate Tyler Perry. I hate some of what he DOES. I hate when his films devolve into territory that even soap opera writers laugh at. Still, I argue to say this isn’t even his worst film, to me, that goes to “Single moms club” but i’ll get to that. If you haven’t seen this movie, I assure, everything I said here, will sum up what happens in it nicely. Happy Black history month!
This submission comes courtesy of @awkblerd who you can keep up with on Twitter or hear him on The Lansing Anti-Hero Podcast.
