Movie Review: Tyler Perry's Madea's Happy Family

Tyler Perry's Madea's Happy Family (2011) 

Directed Tyler Perry

Written by Tyler Perry

Starring Tyler Perry, Loretta Devine, Bow Wow, Tamala Mann, Isaiah Mustafa, Natalie Desselle 

Release Date April 22nd, 2011

Published April 23rd, 2011

Tyler Perry is the singularly most puzzling filmmaker on the planet. In the same film he can deliver a searing message about social ills and dress as a woman who carries a gun, talks like a gangsta and doesn't mind a little weed smoke. That jarring combination made Perry's debut feature, "Diary of A Mad Black Woman," arguably the most schizophrenic moviegoing experience of my life.

In 'Diary' Kimberly Elise delivers a powerhouse performance as an abused wife who finally takes control of her life. The film takes a disturbingly up close view of this abuse and Elise humanizes the suffering in an Oscar worthy performance. And then Perry, dressed in drag as Madea, enters the scene with a chainsaw and like some meta demon begins to almost literally cut the movie to pieces.

Like a Circus interrupting a funeral procession

The same other-worldly shifts in tone plagued Perry's well-meaning "Madea's Family Reunion," "I Can Do Bad All By Myself" and "Madea Goes to Jail." Each film features moments of raw, honest social commentary and each are then blown apart by Perry's insistence on donning a dress and providing clown-like comic relief. Madea enters each of these movies like a circus interrupting a funeral procession.

The Madea issue is slightly less pronounced in Perry's latest feature, "Madea's Big Happy Family." Madea and fellow clown-like, broad stroke characters Uncle Joe (Also played by Perry) and Mr. Brown (David Mann), who even dresses the part of a clown, enter the fray early and often in "Big Happy Family" and never allow the drama of the A story, that of a family falling apart as the matriarch prepares to pass away, to take hold.

Strength in faith

Loretta Devine is Shirley, a long suffering niece of Perry's Madea Simmons, who has just been informed that her cancer has recurred and their is little that can be done. Finding strength in her faith; Shirley has just one wish left before she's ready to join Jesus. Shirley wants one last dinner with her family so that she can tell them all at once that she doesn't have much time left.

This wish is much more complicated than it sounds as each member of the family is consumed with their own baggage. Shirley's youngest, Byron (Rapper Bow Wow) is struggling with a past arrest and an unplanned pregnancy with a nightmare baby mama (Lauren London) and a new girlfriend (Teyana Taylor) who is pushing him to get back into drug dealing.

Henpecked husbands

Shirley's daughter Kimberly (Shannon Kane) has nearly cut all ties with her family in order to establish a suburban, buppy (Black Urban Professional) lifestyle with her henpecked husband Calvin (Isaiah Mustafa) and their son. Kimberly and Calvin have the best dramatic arc of any of the characters in "Big Happy Family" but like all drama in the film, the arc gets truncated by Perry's big top act of Madea, Brown and their daughter Cora (Tamela J. Mann).

Madea's not all bad

Natalie Desselle and comedian Rodney Perry round out the cast of "Big Happy Family" as Shirley's oldest daughter and her henpecked hubby. One must wonder what Shirley had done to the girls' father in order for both women to turn out so horrible to their husbands but that is a subject for a more thorough and thoughtful movie than "Big Happy Family" which is more at home with Madea kicking butt than it is with Shirley's harrowing family life.

There is no denying that Madea can be funny and even, on rare occasions, insightful. There are moments in "Big Happy Family" when Madea's force of nature feels necessary to the plot and even helpful as she/he provides comic relief and a needed swat on the backside of these often troubling characters.

Special guest Maury Povich

Those moments, sadly, are all too rare as the film is padded out to feature length with fat jokes, choke-a-ho jokes and an odd extended public service announcement about the plague of diabetes in African Americans and the need for colonoscopies. There is also an entirely unnecessary arch comic cameo by Maury Povich and his dark comic DNA testing episodes.

In the end, despite honest moments of moving drama from Loretta Devine, Shannon Kane and Isaiah Mustafa, "Madea's Big Happy Family" is mostly a bad movie. It's not funny enough to be a good comedy and their is too much (literal) clowning around going on to allow the drama to resonate. Perry's direction is stilted and, as with each of his previous films, lacks style. In essence, "Madea's Big Happy Family" is typical Tyler Perry.

Movie Review: Death at a Funeral

Death at a Funeral (2010) 

Directed by Neil Labute 

Written by Dean Craig 

Starring Chris Rock, Martin Lawrence, Loretta Devine, Regina Hall, Zoe Saldana, Luke Wilson

Release Date April 16th, 2010 

Published April 16th, 2010 

Director Neil Labute has a terrific eye for human behavior. It's a very particular and often quite dim view of humanity that lead to brutal yet insightful films like In the Company of Men and his magnum opus of anger and inhumanity Your Friends and Neighbors. Yet, there is also a brilliantly whimsical side to the director of the dark side of humanity.

In Nurse Betty Neil Labute took the cute as a button Renee Zellweger and had her play a woman who falls in love with a soap opera character following a psychotic break brought on by witnessing the violent murder of her brutish husband. From there begins a road picture and a strangely romantic and wondrous performance from Morgan Freeman as the killer who falls for Betty from afar. 

The strange comic sensibilities of Nurse Betty were a turn off for many audiences but for me it was a remarkable insight into a filmmaker who is tuned to a very different wavelength than most other filmmakers or other human beings in general. It is this quality that makes Neil Labute perfect for the new comedy Death at a Funeral. What other director could find so much wacky fun at a funeral? 

Chris Rock stars in Death at a Funeral as Aaron the oldest son of a family that just lost its patriarch. Aaron is a tax attorney who longs to be a novelist and lives in the shadow of his slightly younger brother Ryan (Martin Lawrence) a successful writer of trashy novels. This however is the least of Aaron's troubles as he has his wife Michelle (Regina Hall) pushing to have a baby and his mother Cynthia (Loretta Devine) constantly on the verge of a meltdown.

Oh and then there is the issue of the funeral home delivering the wrong body. Yikes! Among the funeral guests are Aaron's cousin Elaine (Zoe Saldana) and her boyfriend Oscar (James Marsden) who dreads seeing Elaine's father (Ron Glass) who has made it clear how much he hates Oscar. They are joined by Elaine's brother Jeff (Columbus Short) a minor drug dealer whose pill concoction is set to make trouble at the funeral.

Family friend Norman (Tracey Morgan) and his pal Derek (Luke Wilson) each have a different purpose at the funeral. Norman is helping out by bringing cranky Uncle Russell (Danny Glover) to the funeral while Derek will be seeking out Elaine with whom he has a romantic past that he hopes to rekindle. 

And then there is a mystery guest. Peter Dinklage plays Frank, the same role he played in the original British version of Death at a Funeral in 2007. Frank holds the key to a major subplot that drives the middle portion of the film to a wild climax that though it comes up a little short by being too easy, does not fail so completely as to sink the whole film. 

Death at a Funeral brilliantly builds comic momentum from the opening scenes involving the wrong body in the casket to the reveal of Frank's secret to Oscar's wild drug infused ride to finally sitting everyone down for the actual funeral. It's remarkable how Labute keeps all of these comic plates spinning and pays off each set piece with a big, big laugh. 

The cast of Death at a Funeral is first rate with Marsden stealing scene after scene with his acid trip wackiness while Chris Rock grounds the film by bringing the craziness back to earth with exasperated truthfulness. Rock is used to driving the comedy by prodding the actors around him with his in your face style. Here, Rock is more relaxed than ever before and it suits him. He may not be pushing the edges but his punchlines are just as strong. 

Neil Labute worked from a script that is credited to original Death at a Funeral writer Dean Craig. Indeed the characters, set pieces and other aspects of the story are almost entirely unchanged from the 2007 film. What is different is the perspective Labute and his cast brings to the picture. There is more willingness by all involved to explore the black comedy side (not a racial observation) of a story that is after all a comedy set at a funeral. 

Especially interesting is the exploration of gay panic, something that in African American circles is an especially touchy subject. This part will contain spoilers so skip to the last paragraph if you hate spoilers, Rock and Lawrence in the film's main plot deftly balance horror, acceptance and humor at the prospect of their father's homosexuality. I would have liked to see a little more attention paid to this subject, it's wrapped up a little too neatly in Rock's closing speech, but overall well handled and bold for merely being in the movie. 

Death at a Funeral is wacky and smart, slapsticky but with an eye for the laughs that don't involve bodies being dumped out of caskets. I could have done without the gross-out moments with Tracey Morgan and Danny Glover, which I will not detail here, but it's not so horrible that it ruins the film. Nor does the relatively comfy wrap up at the film’s end take away from the big laughs and wonderful discomfort of Death at a Funeral.