Blu-Ray Review: ‘Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married Too?’

CHICAGO – Tyler Perry’s films have been steadily improving but the ones that work still rely heavily on their leading ladies – for example, Taraji P. Henson in “I Can Do Bad All By Myself” and Angela Bassett in “Meet the Browns.” The quartet of women in “Why Did I Get Married Too?” can’t elevate the substandard writing and cheap cliche in the same way and the dramedy ends up one of Perry’s worst in years.

Blu-Ray Rating: 1.0/5.0

How obvious and surface-level is “Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married Too”? We’ll get to the cliches of the characters and their melodramatic problems in a minute but the film actually contains an exchange in which a husband and wife say to their friends, “Why did I get married?” “Why did I get married too?” That’s the definition of on-the-nose dialogue.

Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married Too was released on Blu-ray and DVD on August 31st, 2010
Photo credit: Fox

“Why Did I Get Married Too?” tells the two-act story of four couples. The first hour of the unbelievably-bloated two-hour film features a couples retreat in which the four pairs are introduced and the problems that will dominate the second half of the film come to the surface.

Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married Too was released on Blu-ray and DVD on August 31st, 2010 Photo credit: Magnolia

Terry (Tyler Perry) and Dianne (Sharon Leal) seem to be reinvigorated as a couple but questions will naturally arise as to why and if it’s cheating that has brought new passion back into the relationship. Angela (Tasha Smith) has absolutely no trust in husband Marcus (Michael Jai White), badgering him for an unbelievably long amount of screen time about getting the password to his phone. Troy (Lamman Rucker) has had trouble finding a job and becomes even more concerned after the ex-husband (Richard T. Jones) of his wife Sheila (Jill Scott) shows up on the trip. Finally, Patricia (Janet Jackson) and Gavin (Malik Yoba) announce at the end of the vacation that they are breaking up. You can’t even imagine the melodramatic places that will go.

The first hour of “Why Did I Get Married Too?” is weakly-written enough in its structure of four men or four women just sitting around and talking about marriage but it’s spectacular compared to the second hour which is a total mess in every imaginable way. Perry employs an everything-and-the-kitchen-sink mentality by trying to tackle cheating, alcoholism, spousal abuse, distrust, more cheating, money issues, ex-issues, cancer, and, of course, a last-minute hospital visit. The script simply falls apart under the weight of more cliche than three movies could support.

And the cast doesn’t help. Jackson is notably horrendous, playing everything so broadly that she might as well be in a 4,000-seat theater. The back row would still think she was over-acting. Smith is similarly ineffective. Even Perry, who’s relatively-inexperienced playing characters other than Madea, would admit that a project isn’t doing so well when he gives one of the best performances in it. Only Scott and Leal find the occasionally believable note. And that’s the problem with “Married Too?” There’s not a strong-enough performance to balance Perry’s melodrama with something relatably genuine. And when you don’t believe material this broad, it can be as tough to get through as a horrible marriage.

Special Features:
o “Girl Talk: The Women of Married”
o “Male Bondings: The Men of Married”
o Janet Jackson’s “Nothing” Music Video
o Couples Character Guide

[16]	By BRIAN TALLERICO [17] Content Director HollywoodChicago.com brian@hollywoodchicago.com [16]