Hello err’ body… Okay so I guess it’s been a long time coming for writing this movie review for Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married Too. Maybe it’s a good thing that I took a long pause before writing it? True, the movie isn’t as fresh on the mind, but in a way that may be better because it doesn’t allow me to provide a jaded opinion that it was a great movie because of the $25 cover. In retrospect, the movie was decent...it was entertaining and I enjoyed it but it wasn’t a great movie. Despite a somewhat surprising ending it did not stray too far out of line with what we have come to expect to see at a Tyler Perry film.
The characters in the movie remained the same, which makes for good chemistry amongst the cast. The issues from the first movie escalated and carried over. Marcus and Tasha provide the comedic element that a Tyler Perry movie without Madea needs. Their relationship was filled with over the top jealousy rages by Tasha. Though, her antics were needed and provided the comic relief needed for the movie it was still part of the same vein of jealousy that I think –dare I say- all women have. All of the sudden I feel the need to tread carefully. But seriously, I think all women have a “lioness protection of the home” trait about themselves. Whether it’s an attractive female her man used to date, or an attractive female her man works with, or an attractive female who is a neighbor, an attractive woman who is the waitress, an attractive woman who works at the local market, an attractive woman who –you get the drift. . . ALL women –to a degree- want to “mark their territory” and let their man know I got my eye on you. Whether it’s a snide remark they’ll make toward another woman that translates into, “Female dog I’ll kick your gluteus maximus” –imagine if it were said like that :-) or a “joke” they make with their man about the unsolicited attention he is receiving from other women, it all stems from the same vein of jealousy. Suddenly Music Soulchild comes to mind “I’m not to blame for the pain that was caused by previous games”
Do dudes do that?
Well, I can only speak from the perspective of a distinguished gentleman, such as myself who lives by the rules of the game. I don’t get all huffy puffy if other men are sizing my woman up and I don’t get upset if my wife tells me about men on the street who tried to holla at her. To me it’s doesn’t do anything but further validate that I have an amazingly beautiful wife. While I do not need such validation that’s the way I view stuff like that. In addition to all that I trust my wife. Now, with all that said I won’t stand for another man disrespecting me by hollering at her when she is clearly with me or trying to give her flavor when I’m not around and he knows that she is my wife… Bottom line is she “chose me” :) what y’all know about Goldie?
I digress.
Tyler Perry and his wife’s story is somewhat dull, but at the same time speaks to an issue that is interesting - emotional cheating. Tyler Perry plays the husband who is a good dude that takes care of the kids and brings home the bacon –but apparently not the beef. He has a wife who imagines being with another man to enjoy sex with her husband. If we view their relationship through the lens of the first movie he’s still the boring, good husband who seems undercover. She is still the selfish wife who believes her needs should come first; whether it’s being a no-holds-bar working woman or a I want to hold-THAT-bar thinking woman. I think the underlying issue of emotional cheating is an interesting topic of discussion that maybe we’ll get into on a future blog.
Now, we have Jill Scott, Troy and Mike. While Jill Scott’s acting skills aren’t anything to write home about I think one aspect of her character is something we all have/do. That’s carry old baggage from past relationships into new ones. Or better yet allow baggage from old relationships shape our behavior and how we view new relationships –it only makes sense right? Our past experiences are what shape us and guide our thinking. Therefore, I think this is a trait that is so very common to us all. Let the truth be told, sometimes it’s all the reason for some to give up on relationships with the opposite sex, relationships period, or on themselves. I always say it and I really believe that you can’t have a solid relationship with someone else unless you’ve worked through your own issues, or are at least willing to allow your partner to work with you in working through your issues.
While Mike’s presence was the 800 pound elephant in the room, he didn’t deliver the same degree of unrelenting drama to this movie as he did in the first. Honestly, I think that that was a negative for the movie. Instead, he was diagnosed with cancer and played the reflective character that is apologetic for all the wrongs he did to Jill Scott. He reminds me of the song “You never miss a good thing til it’s gone.”
If there was a character in this movie that I felt I could closest relate to it was Troy. Not specifically, his situation, but that sense of pride and disappointment when you don’t fulfill your role as the breadwinner –at least to the degree that you would like to. I’m not sure that women fully get the amount of pressure we men place on ourselves to fulfill that role. We place so much pressure on ourselves that even when our woman is providing encouragement it initially feels degrading and insulting. We want to give our woman and our family the World and when we come up short it feels like failure. Where does that come from? How can you be a failure if you’ve provided unconditional love and been there? I don’t know… maybe this westernized mode of thinking has us hoodwinked…bamboozled…had.
Now, Janet Jackson and Malik Yoba or Patricia and Gavin really stirred things up. Essentially, “Perfect Patty” the control freak loses control. She let’s Gavin know they’ll be getting divorced in a shady manner. Gavin wants payback so he attempts to go after her money, she emasculates him. He dies. Then “The Rock” says “It doesn’t matter if your husband just died!” –sorry, only WWF viewers will understand- and makes “Perfect Patty” happy again. Yep, in a nutshell that’s really what happened. The story of these two came from left field for a couple reasons. First, the first movie left off with the impression that they worked things out or were in the process of working things out. Second, I don’t think anyone expected nor understood why things had to take such a dramatic turn. Although, I believe a little more thought could have been put into how their story was developed, I got it. The walk away lesson is you have to mend relationships and put things into perspective because no one is promised tomorrow. The way it played out was very un-Hollywood, but such is life.
I know that as a whole it seems like I’m hating on the movie, but I really DID enjoy it. It was just too many issues + too little time (+ a sprinkle of corniness) = a lot of cramming and underdevelopment of storylines, which resulted in a somewhat abrupt ending. Part of the reason I was stalling to write this blog was because the more I thought about the movie the more uninspired I was to blog about it. Talk about it…sure, but write about it…aarrgh. Mostly, I’m writing this blog because I said I would, so I feel obligated. In conclusion, I think my homeboy Damien said it best when he stated, “Tyler Perry has been in the game long enough to now expect more out of him.”
