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Last Updated: Apr 18th, 2008 - 08:39:36 |
For the millions of us who grew up following the television drama on “All My Children,” “The Young and the Restless” or “General Hospital,” Tyler Perry’s movies serve as big-screen soap operas like we’ve never seen before—filled with black actors and actresses and story lines much closer to home. Just imagine if we could have watched the likes of Angela Bassett and Rick Fox, rather than the same old players in the role of Erica Kane and Mrs. Chandler?
In “Meet the Browns,” Perry’s latest mishmash of drama and comedy, he continues to explore his favorite theme of love relationships and family, while straying farther from his roots in the church and gospel.
Straying indeed.
Perhaps only those of us who read the scandalous back story of Perry’s favorite character, Madea, in his book Don’t Make a Black Woman Take off Her Earrings, won’t be surprised at the references to the illicit sex trade in this film, as well as its northern ghetto theme. Set in a public housing project in Chicago, it follows the story of Brenda, a struggling single mother of three, including a teenager, Michael, who is a talented high school basketball player. When Brenda gets news that her father, who she never met, has died, she travels with her children to a small town in Georgia to meet her father’s family for the first time. From there, the drama really jumps off.
On balance, there is more drama than comedy in “Meet the Browns,” though, by its conclusion, fans of Perry’s comedy will get some laughs. The drama comes in Perry’s exploration of the life of a single mother (with three children from three different fathers), who is barely paying the bills and keeping food on the table. At the same time, he doesn’t ignore the role of fathers who don’t support their children, or the distrust, anger and betrayal that keep many single mature adults from pursuing relationships. His comedy is as campy as ever, with comedic actor David Mann in the role of Leroy Brown, a “bama” who functions by his own odd sense of logic and by dressing so strangely that Brenda’s youngest child mistakes him for a clown. Mann creates the ridiculous stage comedy that Perry is famous for without the prosthetics and make-up required for Perry to create his beloved character Madea. The hefty matriarch does make a cameo appearance, which seems strangely disjointed from the rest of the story, as if Perry just ran out of subplots and ideas to fill up this fifth movie in three years.
Unlike our typical soap operas, on both the small and big screen (Like the recent “Cover” directed by Bill Duke), Perry lets the action proceed without sappy mood music mucking up the process. He also gets a big assist from Bassett, who is able to find something in the predictable script and make it look and sound better than it is. Bassett, in turn, is given a big assist by actress Sofía Vergara, who plays her motor mouth Latina best friend and adds yet another flava to a Tyler Perry’s latest, big-screen soap opera.
This review also appeared on Tom Joyner's BlackAmericaWeb.com,/i>
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