For all Taraji P. Henson fans out there and Im a card-carrying, dues-paid-up member of the club the bad news is that her latest feature, following on the heels of this years hitwoman horror show Proud Mary, sucks this glorious actress down into more cinematic quicksand. Tyler Perrys Acrimony, presumably titled to set it apart from your acrimony or mine, is a female revenge saga packed with so much hysteria that it could set back the burgeoning #MeToo movement a beat or two. Showcasing Henson in this crass ripoff of Fatal Attraction is like shoving a comet in a shoebox. You can see Henson wants to fly. But she keeps getting her wings clipped.
Henson plays Melinda Gayle, a good woman done wrong by a male pig. Hes Robert (a laser-eyed Lyriq Bent), a wolf in lambs clothing who smooth talks Melinda out of her money and her pride. Hes been doing it for so long that college-age versions of Melinda and Robert are trotted out in the persons of Ajiona Alexus and Antonio Madison. In the present, shes been sentenced to anger-management counseling for stalking him, and tried to kill Robert once by smashing her car into his camper (to be fair, hed been screwing around). The worst part: This futile attempt only results in her sustaining injuries that will prevent her from getting pregnant.
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Still with us? Melina is in a rage we know because she tells us so in voiceovers that conjure up Hensons Cookie from Empire, but without the cheeky wit and inner strength. It seems that this lying, cheating bastard has been looting her inheritance to finance his invention, a self-charging battery. No one wants this innovation, until of course they do, and by then Melinda is divorced and Roberts new love, Diana (Crystle Stewart), is enjoying the fruits of his exs seed money.
Thats
the setup and the lack of energy and surprise Perry brings to the party slows
down the pacing to crawl. You keep wishing this was one of his Medea
comedies, so everything wouldnt move like a turtles-on-quaaludes race. Henson is no stranger to Perry dramatics,
having starred in I Can Do Bad All By Myself and The Family That Preys.
She does everything she can, from throwing tantrums to exploding in violence,
to energize a script that just wont keep a charge. Every time a black woman gets
mad shes a stereotype, Melinda protests. Point taken.
Sadly, stereotypes are
this films stock in trade. Is Melinda a victim or a warrior or just batshit
crazy? The movie cant or wont decide. Taraji
will rise again, she always does. But enduing a full 120 minutes of this shitstorm takes its toll. Bitterness, anger, malice, bad blood thats
acrimony, baby. And thats what youll feel if you blow the price of ticket on
this hack job.
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