Movie Review - For Colored Girls

For Colored Girls (2010)

Starring Janet Jackson, Kerry Washington, Kimberly Elise, Anika Noni Rose, Phylicia Rashad, Thandie Newton, Loretta Devine, and Whoopi Goldberg

Directed by Tyler Perry

All throughout For Colored Girls, I kept trying to will myself to enjoy it.  I was witnessing some stellar performances from Kerry Washington, Kimberly Elise, Anika Noni Rose, and Phylicia Rashad, and I wanted to like this movie so I could recommend others to watch it solely to see these underused actresses.  Unfortunately, Tyler Perry has written and directed a ridiculously melodramatic movie, forcing his onscreen talent to take part in an epic and, at times, laughable misandry fest.

Based on a play which apparently is a series of poetic readings, Perry has crafted very loose interweaving stories that, I'd assume, relate to the original source material.  There's a lovely young dance instructor (Anika Noni Rose) who meets a seemingly charming guy only to discover he may not be such a great catch.  We move onto her young student who gets pregnant and heads to a back alley in the city to get an abortion (doesn't she know that in this day and age, my tax dollars support Planned Parenthood which can certainly show her the nearest clinic).  That girl's sister is a sex addict (and is played by the ridiculously over-the-top Thandie Newton) and she lives next door to Phylicia Rashad who is essentially playing the same voice of reason she played on The Cosby Show.  In the apartment next to Mrs. Cosby is an abused mother (Kimberly Elise) who stays with her army veteran husband who became insane after his stint in Iraq despite the repeated harm he causes her and her children.  That woman works for Janet Jackson who plays a magazine editor with only one overarching characteristic -- cold bitch.  Her husband is cheating on her...with another man.  This insanity just goes on and on.  Couple these ridiculous stories with actresses who are forced, mid-scene, to suddenly break into poetry.  What they were saying may have been lovely, but I couldn't help but laugh.  What are probably beautiful words about the plight of women (which I assume are written by the original playwright) are pigeonholed in between some of the silliest dialog out there (which I assume is written by Tyler Perry).

Somehow, shocking as it is, I was kind of drawn in to the awfulness of the whole affair.  It come awfully close to the so bad it's good realm, but never quite gets there.  The reason it never achieves that lofty goal is that there are too many good performances here and they, unfortunately, make the bad ones look really godawful.  Kerry Washington is actually quite lovely as a social worker set to look into the case of Kimberly Elise's abused wife.  Washington and Elise actually have moments of brilliance here and it's a shame they're stuck in such a crappy film.  Same goes for Ms. Rashad who has a presence that is felt throughout the film even in scenes where she's just on the periphery.  Kudos also to Anika Noni Rose whose character goes through quite a change with shocking believability.  She's also helped by the fact that the scene that "transforms" her is also one of the few moments in which Mr. Perry shows a vague hint that he knows how to utilize a camera to tell a story.

And it's all a shame because those four roles are pitted against the painful silliness of Thandie Newton who apparently can only express frustration through screaming.  Of course, she is playing the daughter of Whoopi Goldberg's character who also overacts to the nth degree.  Pit that against the one-note Janet Jackson who only knows stone-cold sternness as a facial expression and those leading ladies who did a great job get overshadowed by the weaker ones.

In the end, despite the rating below, it may be worth a Netflix instant watch should it ever pop up simply to see some of the great performances, but, in the end, it still proves that Tyler Perry is not the talent that his high box office grosses would make one think he is.

The RyMickey Rating: D+