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Tyler
Perry has finally lived up to his potential and made a movie
that works as a comedy, a drama, and, at its best, a seamless
integration of the two genres.
It has been a
rocky climb to the top of his game for the
playwright-turned-filmmaker, who despite colossal monetary
success never nailed his own trademark: the soap opera-style
dramedy. He first showed a knack for comedy but couldn’t get
drama down in Diary of a Mad Black Woman and Madea’s
Family Reunion. He was pigeonholed by critics (myself
included) as a writer/director who only made movies for
Southern, Christian, African-Americans because they were his
longtime fans, the only ones who uniformly forgave the flaws of
his works. Perry then turned around and made the straight-drama
Daddy’s Little Girls, his best picture to date but
nonetheless not one that fit the “Perry mold,” which resulted in
it being forgotten. Next, he detrimentally reinforced the idea
that he was indeed just a tunnel-visioned salesman pandering to
a niche audience with Why Did I Get Married? and Meet
the Browns; I even called the latter film “racist” because
it relied entirely on empty stereotypes of blacks.
But in the
last year Perry has gotten into a groove. In September, he
dished out The Family that Preys, the same type of
dramedy he burst onto the scene with, anchored by two strong
lead performances by Kathy Bates and Alfre Woodard. And now
comes Madea Goes to Jail, Perry’s first unqualified
success in his signature style, fittingly headlined by the
bombastically angry old black lady who made him famous. It’s a
film that remains faithful to his diehard followers and one that
is good enough to attract many new regular viewers. And given
the man has always operated outside the expected parameters of a
Hollywood filmmaker, I’m happy that he has finally made a movie
we can all celebrate.
Much of
Perry’s recent success can be attributed to his ability to
attract better actors, which has enhanced the dramatic elements
of his pictures substantially. Bates and Woodard, for example,
made The Family that Preys the decent (if still not
entirely successful) picture that it was. This time around,
Perry hired Derek Luke, Keshia Knight Pulliam (a far better
actress than her resume might suggest), and Viola Davis to
headline his accomplished cast. (He was never lacking in the
comedy department because he plays both funny parts–husband and
wife Madea and Joe—in costume.) While Madea Goes to Jail
still qualifies as a soap-opera, it represents melodrama at its
best; the viewer feels deeply for the characters even if they’re
none too densely written because the emotions conveyed by the
actors feel true.
Luke plays
Josh Hardaway, an Assistant District Attorney who is stunned to
find that he has been assigned to the case of his old girlfriend
Candy (Pulliam), who’s now a junkie and a prostitute living on
the streets. Because he knows Candy, Josh must hand the case off
to his fiancée and fellow attorney, Linda (Ion Overman). Linda,
an overbearing and controlling nutcase, is on Josh’s case about
the auspicious sympathy he shows Candy because she thinks he
still has feelings for the young woman. She’s partially right,
but Josh and Candy’s past relationship is far more complicated
than she’ll ever know. To keep Josh from any potential
temptations to stray from her conniving grasp, Linda decides to
pad Candy’s record with priors so she’ll be put away for many
years. In jail, Candy meets the infamous Madea, who all the
while has been engaging in her usual tomfoolery, more criminally
than usual. Madea first dodges charges of evading police in a
high-speed chase because the officers didn’t read her Miranda
Rights during the arrest, only to then get busted again for
destroying a woman’s car by… well, if you haven’t seen the
film’s trailer, I won’t spoil it for you. Drama, laughs, and
efforts to expose the truth ensue, just as they should in a good
soap opera.
I’m sure I
will get several e-mails saying I’m bonkers for suggesting that
there is such thing as a “good soap opera.” While I have been
known to enjoy daily episodes of “As the World Turns,” I assure
you that I have not gone berserk. Yes, Perry has crafted a
contrived, preposterous plot, but if one accepts the narrative
as legitimate, then one is able to embrace the movie for its
emotional values. Josh, Candy, and Linda may indeed be
caricatures on the surface, but they represent real types of
people with real problems. Even I, a white male from California
who has nothing in common with them on the surface, was able to
relate and sympathize.
If Perry is
still utilizing caricatures to tell stories, then how has he
progressed as a dramatic filmmaker, you ask? Beyond his newfound
ability to secure quality actors, Perry has matured in that he
has learned to use said caricatures in a universal way. In
Meet the Browns especially, it felt like the characters
acted as they did simply because a very specific type of viewer
in the target demographic would superficially relate. In
Madea Goes to Jail, Perry works with the emotions involved
to craft a product that’s accessible to most everyone on one
level or another. His handling of the technical elements behind
the camera has progressed as well; Madea Goes to Jail is
his best staged and paced work to date, which is essential to
keep the drama flowing in an organic way.
Madea Goes
to Jail is not only more accessible to a broader range of
folks on an emotional level than previous Perry efforts, either;
like we saw in The Family that Preys (notably Perry’s
first film with a white main character), there’s more racial
diversity than ever before, perhaps suggesting Perry is
consciously working to broaden his audience. Detractors may
argue that Perry depicts non-African Americans in a poor
light—the prominent white character causes Madea to commit the
act that sends her to jail and the prominent Latino is an
abusive pimp—but this represents a trivialization. As he has
long done with those from his own community, Perry uses these
characters to comment on the problems holding people back. But
his message has never been this broad.
But perhaps
I’m skirting around the “point” of the film. Madea Goes to
Jail’s success in anchoring melodrama in strong emotions and
commenting on relations between races and inside the black
community is not the movie’s selling-point; humor is. I’ve done
a bit of a disservice to the film by not yet speaking directly
to just how dang funny the comedy is, with Perry consistently
finding new hilarious physical gags within his Madea creation.
In economic times like these, it’s always nice to see a movie
that is successful in making audiences laugh. But Perry has
always nailed his jokes; the surprise here is that they coexist
with the other material in a pleasing and natural manner.
Madea Goes to Jail is overall consistently entertaining with
a few nuggets of depth to sink one’s teeth into after the show,
everything that a straightforward, mainstream Friday night
picture should be.
-Danny Baldwin, Bucket Reviews
Review Published on: 2.20.2009
Screened on: 2.26.2009 at the
AMC Mission Valley 20 in San Diego, CA.
Click
here to read my related column
"How 'Madea' Brings Us Together".
