ktravula – a travelogue!

For Coloured Girls

The adaptation of a stage play to film is tricky, and one should credit Tyler Perry for attempting that uphill task with his adaptation of Ntozake Shange’s play into film. Full disclosure: I am a fan of plays. I am a bigger fan of adaptations, especially if I have read the play first. In this case, I hadn’t. All I had going for me was a perception of the director as one very much in tune with his female base, willing to approach them from the most emotional point of their interest.

I had seen The Diary of a Mad Black Woman – his first film I saw. Then I saw the Madea Family Reunion which featured some of my favourite actresses. Maya Angelou was there. Then there was Why Did I Get Married and its sequel which I grossly disliked (and blogged about) for its over-sensationalist approach to family dysfunctions in the black community. In all his films I have seen, what I always took away is his ability to portray things as they exist in the reality of many. In doing so, he contributes to the (some have said “stereotypical”) portrayal of black life.

Initial thoughts on For Coloured Girls is that it does like all his work – with the brilliant performances of Kimberly Elise, Anika Rose, Phylicia Rashad, and Thandie Newton – once again takes an unflinching look at the painful lives of black women, their pains and victories. The positives are a star-studded cast, a language that sticks as much as possible to the lines of the play, and a story that is as complex as it is haunting. The negatives include the failure of the story to offer more than the pain of loss and the beauty of community. The promise of the first half of the story fails to move anymore after an hour, and at times seems like an earnest fight against an inevitable failing. Maybe it’s in my expectation of too much from it all, or my sociocultural distance from the emotional experience being so beautifully portrayed.

The summation of course is not that we need less of these kinds of works. It is that we need more, and better. And this is where Tyler Perry gets a thumb up.

For Coloured Girls was published on March 10th, 2011, with the tags , , , under the Art, Observations category. There are currently 1 comment on this article so far.

Why Did I Even Bother Too?

Tyler Perry’s latest movie is titled Why Did I Get Married Too, a sequel to the first brilliant drama Why Did I Get Married. But while the first part was brilliant, logical and very comical and stimulating, this sequel fails like the very many other sequels that seek to make money off a first brilliant idea. And while I don’t hate all sequels (Meet the Fockers lives up to expectation of a good sequel after Meet the Parents, as did Simba’s Pride and Lion King 1 1/2). But if I was asked to summarize this Tyler Perry movie in one word, it would be: “heck!”.

Don’t get me wrong, it was good as far as cinematography, characterization and acting are concerned. It even has some great laugh-out-loud scenes. But for plot, I give it a big thumbs down. And I am a Tyler Perry fan. I have seen and loved some of his earlier works like Madea’s Family Reunion and The Diary of a Mad Black Woman. I have even seen the stage performance of this Why Did I Get Married. But now after spending my money and two hours of my life in a cinema, I am left with wondering: Why? You don’t always have to make a sequel. But when you do, why not at least give the audience some credit for intelligence and the ability to discern when they’re being taken for a ride.

I know that many people, especially women will crucify me for taking this position, but luckily I am not alone. If you choose to pay your money to see it, note that the story will neither inspire nor even entertain you in any intelligent way. You will get sentimentality, but not brilliance. You will probably wish that you had gone to see Desperate Housewives instead. At least, that one is honest about its intention to sometimes take your intelligence for granted with exaggerated coincidences and plot twists. And Desperate Housewives does have some brilliant lines as well as plots. In this Tyler Perry movie, all the four couples in the first part have gotten back together for another annual retreat. What happens afterwards – I insist – is a matter for tv series and soaps, and not for the movies. As thoroughly superb as her performance in this disappointing flick is, I’m sorry to say that Janet Jackson won’t be deserving an Oscar yet. And it won’t be her fault. It will be the poor script that the director has given her to play. Maybe Mr. Perry should consider turning the “movie” into a tv series, and we can hope for him to win his Emmys someday. Until then, let me go mourn the loss of two precious hours that I will never ever get back. 🙁

Why Did I Even Bother Too? was published on April 4th, 2010, with the tags , , , , under the Art, Fun, Opinion category. There are currently 5 comments on this article so far.