TYLER PERRYS WHY DID I GET MARRIED TOO? (Tyler Perry). 121 minutes. Opens Friday (April 2). For venues, trailers and times, see Movies. Rating: NNN
Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married Too? is proof that the prolific director of the Madea movies is finally finding his groove. Perry’s soap hip-hoperas are prone to elaborate, over-the-top plot detours, and their upper-middle-class African-American characters seem like they’re shucking and jiving in a minstrel show. But not so much this time.
[rssbreak]
In this sequel to 2007’s Why Did I Get Married?, the squabbles of four well-off couples on retreat in the Caribbean ring surprisingly true. Perry ditches the cartoonish villains he favoured in the past and cleverly focuses on how relationships can simply wither or implode. He still can’t conjure up a single eye-pleasing frame, even in the Bahamas (aesthetically, Perry’s like the black Kevin Smith), and offers a groan-inducing denouement.
But the writer/director makes up for these flaws with dramatic insight and hysterical dialogue that his fine ensem ble cast chews right through. Tasha Smith’s loud, suspicious, manure-mouthed Angela explodes off the screen as if she were 3-D.
