Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married?

Tyler Perry has released his fourth film called “Why Did I Get Married?”, his second this year after last February’s “Daddy Little Girls,” based on his stage play of the same name following the lives of four married couples as they share a week-long vacation together as they try to work out any problems between them and build a stronger relationship. It’s a step up for this triple-threat prolific director/writer/producer, whose claim to fame is the cross-dressing character Madea. Not only is it a step up, but its his best effort to date. (I can’t comment on DLG because I haven’t seen it as of posting this review).

On a trip to the Rocky Mountains in Alaska for their annual weekend retreat, four couples reexamine their lives shared together. Terry (Tyler Perry) wants to spend some time with his workaholic wife Diane (Sharon Leal), who is too busy to sit down and spend time as a family, not even with her own daughter Kenya; Marcus (Michael Jai White) wants his wife Angela (Tasha Smith) to stop talking smack and embarrassing him in public, and wants to make their relationship work; Sheila (Jill Scott) is trying to repair her marriage to Mike (Richard T. Jones), unaware of the fact that he is sleeping with Sheila’s friend Trina (Denise Boutte); Patricia (Janet Jackson) and Gavin (Gavin) are considered the perfect couple as Patricia was the one who organized the annual event, but suffers from her own setback when their son was recently killed in a car accident.

They are joined by the quiet town’s sole sheriff Troy (Lamman Rucker), who helps out Sheila when her husband Mike makes her drive instead of flying with him an Sheila is the only one in the group with a relation and understanding of God’s love, and displays this affection many times in the film. There is one instant of using the name of Jesus in a negative way, but is made in a comical delight that you forget it was there. There’s some talk about sex, some sensual subject matter, and a scene of violence.

The film features the first on-screen appearance of Jill Scott, who plays Sheila with such power and integrity that she is the driving force of the movie. (A backstory is that the singer/actress HERSELF was going through a divorce at the time. Perfect casting!) The same can’t be said for Janet Jackson, who I felt was miscast as the psychiatrist teacher/friend, as this was her first role in seven years (last seen in 2000s sequel “The Nutty Professor II: The Klumps”). Tyler Perry had one of his best roles in the movie from the gentlemen side, although Michael Jai White comes in as a strong second, as a man who is trying everything to make his relationship stronger with his wife.

The screenplay has its choppy soap opera moments, like Perry’s previous works, but Perry gets points for tying to take it up a notch and interweave personal relationships throughout. This is a solid step up from those Madea films, whom he is thinking about revisiting next year. Don’t bring back Madea, these are the kind of films Perry should focus on: real life situations with a positive, and sometimes to a degree, spiritual message.

Violence: Mild / Profanity: Minor / Sex/Nudity: Mild

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