I was not crazy about this one and was frankly disappointed, especially after Tyler Perry‘s last great film, “Acrimony”. When rom-coms are done right, we want to watch them over and over because the audience falls in love with the on-screen couple. We want to either be like them or imagine hanging out with them. We see a bright happy future for them with the white picket fence and two or more kids in the yard. Unfortunately, we never really feel any of those things for Nobody’s Fool’s Danica and Frank. Because Tika Sumpter‘s Danica was so abusive and snobby to Omar Hardwick‘s Frank that it made her unlikeable. There are simply lines you do not cross in a relationship and Danica crosses them so many times that you never really root for them as a couple. By the end of the film, I didn’t want Frank to continue to allow himself to be abused by her and the viewer never gets the feeling that they will last as a couple. When the credits roll, I was still left feeling that Frank would be thrown aside again if someone more attractive to Danica came along. These are not the proper feelings that a rom-com should elicit in the viewer.
In addition, Tiffany Haddish, as a sexual predator/freak and loudmouth has gotten really old. It’s becoming a bad stereotype that she needs to start refusing to play into. Even in “Night School” where she was supposed to be a teacher, her opening scene involves her talking about her mom’s “booty hole”! In this #MeToo conscious era, would we be ok if a man did things like coming on to a woman at work, rubbing up against an uninterested woman or tweaking a woman’s nipples without her permission? And are we ever going to have a Haddish film where she isn’t vulgar and spouting off about “pussy, dick or booty hole”? This is particularly insensitive from Perry, who has admitted that he was sexually abused by a woman as a child.
I know Haddish has made her money playing this type. But while it worked and was fresh in “Girl’s Trip”, the time is now to pivot away from this typecasting. I was hoping that Tyler would’ve brought something different out in her. There are a couple of bright spots. Whoppi Goldberg shines as the sage pothead Mom. And any chance to see the gorgeous Omari Hardwick is always a plus!
Plot Summary: After serving five years in prison, wild child Tanya looks to her buttoned-up, by-the-book sister Danica to help her get back on her feet. The feisty ex-con becomes suspicious and concerned when Danica tells her that she’s in a long-distance, online relationship with a mysterious man she’s never seen. As the polar opposites start to collide, Tanya soon discovers that her sibling’s picture-perfect life may not be what it seems.
Cast: Tiffany Haddish, Tika Sumpter, Omari Hardwick, Whoopi Goldberg, Amber Riley, Mehcad Brooks, Missi Pyle, Jonathan Rudnitsky
Director: Tyler Perry
Genres: Romantic comedy
Production Co: Paramount Pictures
Distributors: Paramount Pictures
