The Family That Preys

The Family That Preys is Tyler Perry's shameless attempt to make a cinematic soap-opera, and if you go by what soap operas are known for - heaping helpings of drama, thin characters, bland settings, and stiff dialog - the film is better than the average unsubstantial hour you could spend watching All My Children on CBS. And yet, there are several more substantial ways you could spend two hours rather than watching a Tyler Perry film. As always, the choice is yours.

The film feels like a full season's worth of soap opera material compressed into a one-hundred and thirteen minute film, featuring a various array of characters and their various arrays of problems. The characters come from one of two families, either the wealthy, whitebread socialites lead by the mom, Charlotte Cartwright (Kathy Bates) or the working-class black family ran by Alice Evans (Alfre Woodard). Cartwright and Evans have remained the best of friends, despite enormous financial differences, and develop a "Thelma and Louise"-like friendship when they hit the road in a bold turquoise convertible to explore the humble countryside.

Their children, all grown up and of all different ages, are the other characters we focus on. Alice's daughter is the bitchy, unfaithful Andrea (Sanaa Lathan), who is married to the ambitious, hardworking Chris Bennett (Rockmond Dunbar), who works a lowly construction worker job with his pal (Tyler Perry) working for William Cartwright (Cole Hauser). Chris has ambitions of starting his own construction company with his friend, until he realizes that first he must get his marital issues straightened out when he finds his wife has over $200,000 in a private banking account.

As you can infer, this leads to unconditional drama between the families, who must work it out on their own while their mothers are living it up in the south. This family drama will likely be exciting to audience who demand a film that briefly touches on a wide-range of emotions, rarely emphasizing on one certain moral or encompassing virtue. For those who want more characterization, investment, and positivity, this is a pretty meager offering. However, Perry doesn't pull punches when it comes to juggling multiple different characters. He shows his capability here when he creates several different people, all inhabiting the same world, and all dealing with unique problems. Even if the film is overwrought, it nonetheless is a competent production that steers clear of idiocy and wooden features like many other Perry movies do.

I'm also proud to see that the film sticks to its dramatic genre, regardless on how much dramatic material it infuses into its story. Coming off of the first Perry movie I watched (Diary of a Mad Black Woman roughly a year ago), I was offput by the way the film juggled an abundance of genres, ranging from melodrama to bizarre slapstick comedy to Christian-gospel to bleeding gum moral propaganda. With The Family That Preys, I respect the fact that Perry remains more attentive to the drama at hand. The last thing I wanted to see was the loudmouth, insufferable Madea show up and inflict her radical, obnoxious energy to a premise that is more about slow-moving tension. As I've seen, this is something she clearly doesn't do well with.

The Family That Preys is a serviceable picture, with unanimously fine acting (especially from its leads, Bates and Woodard), a more focused agenda, and a pleasant little picture. I grossly misrepresented this film which, judging by the cover, looked like a tired "walk in the shoes of another family' film dealing with race-relations and upper vs middle class, sociological drudgery. Perry has effectively made me second-guess just how aware and intelligent he is in terms of dealing with a specific subject. Just when you think he's doing one thing, he switches over to a slightly better thing.

Starring: Kathy Bates, Alfre Woodard, Sanaa Lathan, Rockmond Dunbar, Taraji P. Henson, Cole Hauser, Tyler Perry, Robin Givens, and KaDee Strickland. Directed by: Tyler Perry.

OK, I've read all the other reviews, to date, and I have to agree with those who had a positive experience. I'm a 62 year old gay white male, and I gave this movie an 8/10. I am not an unreserved fan of Tyler Perry, and think some of the Madea sub-plots are pretty ugly. That said, I have watched nearly everything he's done, enjoyed most, and feel that this one is the best I've seen. The plot(s) were not difficult to follow, or swallow, and the entire cast was perfect, not a bad actor among them. As expected, Alfre Woodard and Kathy Bates were truly excellent in their roles. These gals have been doing this, and doing it well, for a long time, and are perfect together. If they aren't long time friends off-camera, they surely fooled me.

I had the opportunity to see The Family that Preys this weekend, this is my second Tyler Perry movie, to be honest from what I've seen, I think I may check out his other movies, because I do like what I've seen so far. The Family that Preys is seriously one of the better films I've seen so far in September, it's an honest drama that keeps your attention, it was also very touching. In some ways this was the female version of The Bucket List, even as it was hard to watch, it was still an incredibly moving movie. The chemistry between Kathy Bates and Alfre Woodard was just dead on and you really believed in their friendship. I also loved the side story between the two sisters and their husbands, one sister who is rich and spoiled with a good husband who is in major denial about what his wife really is, the other sister who wishes for her husband to keep his head up and live his dream. Tyler Perry pulls in a good family story that will have you smiling at the end.

Alice and Charlotte are best friends, Charlotte is a rich business woman who's son wants to take over her company, she's rooting for a different C.O.O. that she hand picks, Abby, who is a strong woman who is working her way to the top. Alice is a struggling woman who Charlotte asks if they can go on a road trip together, she agrees, they go across country enjoying the last bits of life. But what they don't realize is that at home Alice's daughter, Andrea, is sleeping her way to the top behind her loving husband's back, her other daughter is begging for her husband to live his dreams, and Charlotte's son is just a sleaze who will step on anyone to get to the top.

The Family that Preys is seriously a very good movie, it will not disappoint you. I'm really disappointed in a lot of these ratings. I believe there are some users lately who don't even see the movie, they just rate it a low number just because they don't like who's the star or whoever is making the film, please, you have to trust me on this film, it's a little treasure and a very strong film that will remind you to not take life for granted, stay strong, and remain proud of who you are. The script had extremely well written lines and I loved the representation of the hardship of being a woman trying to compete in a man's working world, not to sound horrible, but I imagine that's even harder for an African American woman and this movie just inspires you that it is possible to stay strong and work hard, keep the faith, and good things will come to you. This is a fantastic movie, I highly recommend it.

8/10

I saw this movie last night, and found it entertaining, with great acting, and intriguing twists. Perry's movies get better and better. Most of his early work, I did not take very seriously, and did not pay to see in theaters. I thought "Why Did I Get Married" was his best. The Family That Preys, in my opinion ties with it. I think southerners, with insider's knowledge of complicated relationships between Blacks and Whites, (especially between wealthy Whites and the people who work for them), viewers familiar with Faulkner's work, family stories passed down from generation to generation will walk away with a special, "ah ha" that reminds me of so and so and "miss" so and so...moment.

So often family secrets cross color lines, friendship and loyalty have a unique southern flavor. Proximity to the powerful often holds special dangers and temptations. I think most memorable are the strong women who in their unique southern style, play for keeps while holding their heads up, cursing while wearing hats and gloves, in ladylike form. If you've ever lived in the South, you know what I'm talking about. Southern Belles, matriarchs, supportive wives--who have a manipulative, strategic side--are so often the real backbone of the family.

Am I the only one who noticed (thankfully) the absence of the "N" word, or similarly distasteful references? The audience knew why Alfre Woodard's character said, "He won't marry you", without any reference to race.

Tyler Perry's The Family That Preys is a great drama that delivers both a great storyline and a great moral compass. I watched it on TV half an hour ago, and when I came to check it out here on IMDb, I was absolutely shocked that it only has 3.3 stars!

Tyler Perry does a great job of setting up scenarios filled with broken people in broken relationships, just struggling to get through life. Without giving too much away, he presents people in poverty, wealthiness, friendship, and infidelity, so there's always something you can relate to, either by personal experience, or through someone you know.

If you haven't seen this movie yet---GO SEE IT!!! Don't let the extremely low rating fool you. I'm white, young, liberal, and still enjoyed it, so you don't have an excuse either. :)