The Single Moms Club

The five women who reside at the center of "Tyler Perry's The Single Moms Club" are united by the fact that their misbehaving children have all been put on probation by the private school they attend. In response to this and other issues, the gals form their own support group to help them cope with the very real and very specific challenges they face trying to rear children on their own.

The women represent a neat (a little too neat, perhaps) cross section of modern America, culled from a variety of races and economic strata, differences that are ultimately obliterated by the common bond of single motherhood. The movie focuses on the compromises - financial, moral, personal and romantic - that these harried women have to make in order to get through life.

Though "The Single Moms Club" is slightly less cartoonish than many of Perry's previous films (no Madea in sight!) and it does offer some insights into the struggles facing such women, the movie, as a whole, lacks the verisimilitude needed to make the material convincing. For all the fine actresses that Perry has assembled for his cast (Nia Long, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Zulay Henao, Cocoa Brown and Amy Smart), the characters themselves lean too much towards the stereotypical and clichéd - the sassy, plus-sized black woman whose husband and two oldest boys are in the poky; the uptight, snooty rich white woman who's making her way up the corporate ladder and, thus, had her daughter through artificial insemination; the petite suburban blond with the hunky, albeit sensitive, next door neighbor, etc.

Perry himself appears, not in drag this time, portraying the romantic interest of one of the mothers. "Brooklyn Nine-Nine's" Terry Crews is also one of the men in the cast.

But it's the five actresses who rise, if only partially, above all the slickery and goo.

The story follows five single moms, each one with her own problems, got together and decide to form a support group for themselves after they meet at their teenage children's school. The single moms are Jan who is a successful career woman with a teenage girl whom she rarely spend time with; May, a fledgling writer with a teenage boy, and her ex-husband disappoints their son over and over again; Hillary who is a mother of three, with her oldest daughter is on the time of turning into a physically mature woman; and Lytia is a waiter with a guy crazy about her yet she keeps rejecting; while Esperanza has a boyfriend whom she keeps secretly in fear that her ex-husband will cut her off child support.

The basic story somewhat relates to many women, whether in the US or other English-speaking countries. No wonder this movie can manage to get to Box Office. The cast selection shows that this movie wasn't designed for greatness from the very start. The acting is achieved overall is thus a so-so. That thing made character development limited only to what the story and screenplay provides, that even those are insufficient. One more thing that boggles me is that the story is not given a chance to develop completely. It is as if the movie is forced to meet a target of being about 90 minute in length. The ending is even so abrupt because the final conflict is plainly strange.

For a movie that falls into Comedy genre on IMDb, the jokes are mostly corny or just plain not funny at all. There is the drama element, alright. But even the drama isn't developed well. And when there is a scene of heightened emotional moment, the acting spikes drastically from so-so up to overacting. One thing though, I was surprised to see Terry Crews here, and it is a comedy in itself.

I guess I don't really have a say on the other aspects such as costumes, makeup or music scoring and soundtrack. Not because they are bad, I think they are just okay. It's just that the overall quality of the movie is just relatively bad. So I guess this is the second time, back to back, Tyler Perry has made a movie that is not of a relatively good quality, after last year's "A Madea Christmas".

For me, it's a 3 out of 10 scoring movie. No, I don't recommend you to see it. Well, if only the story is developed better, maybe that'll help.

I am a first time reviewer… but after reading some of the reviews I wanted to chime in.

If you are in the mood for a rainy Sunday afternoon lifetime type movie, this is the movie to watch. It is a well told story with drama and comedy that compliment each other. I had some actual LOL moments and the story progressed well.

The initial character building works; I knew the characters and cared about them within the first ten minutes. The story does get stuck towards the middle but quickly recovers.

My favorite thing about this movie is that there are some awesome scenes that, in my opinion, are simply extraordinary.

If you approach this movie with the intention of being entertained and a bit enlightened, then you will not be disappointed.

I think Single Mom's Club is a great idea for a movie. It's certainly not a blockbuster and it's definitely not a box office hit, but it's a cute movie that's probably relatable to many women; single mom or not.

There is a lot of great acting and quirky characters in this movie. Each of the 5 women have their own unique situation they are going through, and although some characters are a bit more easy to tolerate than others, they all have something about them that can be appealing. From completely helpless, to stubbornly independent, there is a spectrum of different approaches here to the idea of raising kids by oneself.

This movie is ultimately about friendship. It's about the strong bond that can be created when people of similar circumstances put aside their inherent differences and help each other. Yes, there area few plot holes here and there, and the ending is awkward and cheesy, but overall, it's a heartwarming story. A cute girls night kind of flick.

This is a realistic movie about the inequality of divorce settlement in America. Imagine if your ex husband had the power to put you out of the house for seeing someone else while he is married to someone else, talk about control! In the meantime, because the children of these 5 women were late being picked up and caught defacing the school property or smoking on school property, their mothers (who happen to be all single moms) were made to form a committee for a school fund raiser, otherwise apart from being single mothers, with children going to the same private school, they have nothing in common. It is disheartening the number of sad stories there are about fathers abandoning their first families both financially and morally, leaving their children without a father figure at all!