Directed By: Tyler Perry
Starring: Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Lance Gross, Robbie Jones, Kim Kardashian
What It’s About: A woman is trapped into a life of lies after having an affair with a billionaire bachelor.
Rated PG-13 (for some violence, sexuality and drug content)
Runtime: 111 minutes
By Cole Nelson, Staff Writer
After nearly eight months of writing for the Poly Spotlight’s Diversion staff, specifically writing film reviews, I have yet to come across a film that I have not enjoyed. Naturally, I have liked some films more than others (Lincoln trumps The Words by far), but I had never simply disliked a film. Then I saw Tyler Perry’s Temptation.
I entered the theater knowing only two things: (1) Temptation had Tyler Perry’s infamous name written all over it, and (2) this wasn’t an addition to Perry’s so-called comedies, but an intended drama. I did not know, however, that — even with a student discount — I had wasted my money.
Now, I can predict with about 99 percent certainty that I am not the target audience of Temptation. In fact, I was chuckling at nearly everything that was envisioned by the creators—Tyler Perry, Tyler Perry and Tyler Perry—to be dramatic and sincere. Nevertheless, this does not mean that I don’t have enough credibility to say, with the same amount of certainty, that the writing, along with the editing, was nothing to write home about. But it was something to write a very blunt and slightly harsh review on. And so we begin.
The entire film, with the exception of the very beginning and the very end, is told through a flashback spewed by a marriage counselor to one of her clients. It begins with Judith (Jurnee Smollett-Bell) and Brice (Lance Gross) on their lovey-dovey quest towards matrimony. According to the narrator, they loved each other since the day they met, both at age six, leading to an obviously happy marriage. In fact, they were so filled with immense love for each other that “If smiles were dollars, they would have millions.” (That is a direct quote from the film. Now you can gauge how great of a writer Perry is). However, when Judith is introduced to a billionaire bachelor named Harley (Robbie Jones), who is willing to place his money (along with something else of his) into the company Judith works for, things don’t go so smoothly for the happy couple. With a little coaxing from Harley, Judith finds herself lured into every temptation that comes her way—the foremost of which is an affair with Harley. From then on, Judith spirals into a life of sex, drugs, materialism and disconnection from her husband, mother and the Lord. How will she continue living without facing the consequences?
Well, the film ends with a number of truly unpredictable plot twists, but this, unfortunately, does not change the fact that the rest of the movie is completely predictable and fairly trite. This is just speaking of the story alone; a story that is so overused and unoriginal that I am almost certain Tyler Perry has done something similar to it before.
The acting, on the other hand, is simply mediocre. This is in part due to Kim Kardashian’s appearance in the film, which demonstrates her natural talent at, well, nothing. Compared to her, any other actress qualifies as a theatrical expert. In fact, the only explanation that I can come up with to explain her presence in the film is to make the handful of second-rate actors seem exceptional. I can only vouch for a decent performance from Lance Gross, who plays the inattentive husband.
Typically, screenwriters use real dialogue, or at least dialogue based on reality, to write a natural-sounding script. In the case of Tyler Perry, he must have channeled his inner schizophrenia (Madea and all the other characters played by Perry himself) to write Temptation. For example, the dialogue in Temptation is so unnatural that at one point Harley, the antagonist, so sentimentally states, “I think I just love too hard.”
For the sizeable amount of negative remarks, I must throw one positive remark out there. I have an honest admiration of Tyler Perry. Not for the work that he puts out, but for the work that he puts in. For nearly a decade now, Perry has written, produced, directed or starred in at least two films per year. He must be an unbelievably busy man, especially since he can attract a similar audience to every film that has the name “Tyler Perry” slapped onto it.
Similar to Woody Allen and the Jewish community, Tyler Perry gives a voice to the African American community through film—an element made obvious in Temptation. It may be because I wasn’t the intended audience of Temptation, or it may be just the fact that it is not an enjoyable film, but either way I did not like it. I do not expect Perry to receive an Oscar nomination for his current or future work. With that said, I would love to be proven wrong.
Courtesy of boxofficebuz.com