Daddy's Little Girls

I saw this film recently at the Black Film Maker International Film Festival here in London.

Not at all like Perry's previous films which have both been premiered at the festival in the last few years. Instead of broad Christian Cross-Dressing Gun Totting Comedy, what we have here is a gentle romantic drama with a smattering of jokes here and there.

At got to say it wasn't to bad though I have to admit I preferred the Meadea films. The performances were OK especially the leading actors Union & Elba. The story is a bit hackneyed but I guess that's the cynic in me. You kind of knew exactly how the film was going to end from the open credits. The audience I saw it with loved it.

That got me thinking why can't you see Perry's work in the UK other than at the BFM Film Festival. Why not release the films on DVD, any visit to Dalston/Brixton/Harlesden in London will tell you that's there's a great illicit trade in Perry's films.

Anyway, if you like a undemanding and somewhat unoriginal romantic drama this is just the thing for you.

Black Narcissus

No one could ever accuse Tyler Perry of being the soul of subtlety - either as a filmmaker or as a storyteller. His set-ups are often painfully contrived, with characters who are two-dimensional and stereotypical, and messages that are pat and overly simplistic, to put it mildly. Yet, in this era when too many black characters are either rappers, street thugs, prostitutes or drug dealers, Perry speaks to audiences yearning to see a more positive vision of the African-American experience portrayed on screen. That's certainly an admirable goal, but the problem is that Perry himself is not above indulging in many of those very same stereotypes if, in so doing, it helps him to get his message across.

In "Daddy's Little Girls," the first ethnic stereotype Perry admirably endeavors to shatter is that of the absent or indifferent urban black father. His protagonist, Monty, is a divorced dad of three who works as an auto mechanic in a garage run by none other than Louis Gossett Jr. Monty's ex has pretty much flown the coop, leaving the kids to be raised by her mother who is currently dying of lung cancer. After the woman's death, Jennifer decides she now wants to raise the children, even though she's living with a gangsta' boyfriend who's so low he even sells drugs to the kids in the neighborhood schoolyard. This sets up a fierce custody battle between Monty and Jennifer with the three girls caught in the middle.

As stated previously, it is commendable that Perry wishes to make Monty a model for young male viewers to emulate, but in order to establish Monty's bona fides as a caring father, the filmmaker for some reason has found it necessary to ratchet up the mother's vileness past the point of believability. In fact, Jennifer makes Cinderella's evil stepmother look like June Cleaver and Carol Brady in comparison. Indeed, she is so over-the-top in her villainy that one wonders how such a seemingly level-headed and sweet-tempered soul as Marty could ever have been fooled into marrying her.

Perry doesn't do much better with the main female character, a snooty, high-priced African-American lawyer named Julia, who looks down her nose on poor working-class stiffs like Monty who takes a position as her much-abused chauffeur in order to make a little money on the side. Monty soon discovers that all the over-stressed Julia needs is a good man to bring meaning to her sterile, empty life. Thus, with the character of Julia, Perry manages to insult blacks, career women and specifically black career women in one fell swoop.

The movie makes some interesting points about the role class consciousness plays in the black community, with wealthy blacks sometimes more dismissive of their less well-off counterparts than are wealthy whites. Unfortunately, this theme is played out in the context of a fairly formulaic romance between Monty and Julia, with the "little girls" of the title reduced to not much more than walk-on roles in the story. Idris Elba is appealing and solid as the sincere, hardworking Monty, while Gabrielle Union does what she can with the poorly written part of Julia.

The narrative also suffers from what first-year screen writing students (or "Crash" deriders) like to refer to as "coincidence overload," with characters bumping into one another at all-too-convenient moments or just happening to learn crucial bits of information from news stories on TV.

"Daddy's Little Girls" starts off with the best of intentions, and there are certainly some poignant, touching moments to be found in the film, but the movie is so fixated on pandering to the emotions of its audience, especially in the melodramatic final reel, that most of the goodwill one brings to the project has pretty much evaporated by the time the closing credits come rolling by.

Unlike one of the other comments I read about Tyler Perry's latest film, I thought this was well done. The violence in this movie is what real life is like. And though, it is not suitable for young children or "our boys and girls", there is a reason it is rated PG-13. This isn't a feel-good family and children's movie. Kids 13 and older have most likely seen equal to or more severe fighting walking through the halls of their schools (as have I). And lets be real here - your typical 14 year old freshman in high school kid is not gonna spend $6.75 on a movie called "Daddy's Little Girls", am I right? I couldn't agree more that violence is not the answer - there's no doubt about that. But Tyler Perry's movie's are known for real life day-to-day struggles and how to overcome hard times. And if I found out that a drug dealer was beating my 5 year old daughter and leaving dark bruises on her tiny back, I would feel like doing the exact same thing. I'm so tired of cheesy unrealistic movies with dull humor. Thank you Tyler Perry for these films. You are a genius!

The biggest problem with this is that it's so totally predictable almost from the very beginning. Is there any surprise that comes up at any point in the entire movie? About the only thing thrown in that threw me off for a few minutes was the rape conviction against Monty (Idris Elba) which ended up being explained away anyway. The basis of the story, of course, was Monty's frantic need to get custody of his 3 daughters back from his ex-wife, who's hooked up with a drug dealer and seems to be into some pretty bad stuff herself. That leads to his budding relationship with Julia (Gabrielle Union) - a high powered lawyer who had employed Monty as her driver for a while, and finds herself strangely drawn to him both personally and professionally, as she ends up representing him. There's a lot of extraneous material thrown in - the community's combination of outrage and impotence against local drug dealers, the wrong side of the tracks romance between Monty and Julia, the situation the kids find themselves in when they're taken away from Monty and handed over to their mother. Sometimes it seemed as if there was a bit too much extraneous material to be honest.

What I liked about the movie was the decision to make the girls' father the good guy, and the fact that the black community living in Monty's neighbourhood was shown to be diverse and mostly good, honest folk with a few losers thrown in. I also liked the performances from Elba and Union - they worked well together - and from the 3 McClain girls (I assume sisters themselves) who played Monty's children. They were as far removed from irritating child actors as you could imagine. They were quite good.

Unfortunately, what I didn't like about this was the predictability of the whole thing. There was virtually no dramatic tension throughout, because you knew without any doubt how pretty much everything was going to turn out. That really drags a movie down in my opinion. (4/10)

Daddy's Little Girls is my favorite Tyler Perry film so far. I am a recent fan of Tyler Perry's work my first film being Meet the Browns and ever since I was hooked. Tyler Perry works hard to make his films feel real and he never disappoints. In this film a man is trying to buy a garage while helping his three daughters grandmother take care of them. When tragedy strikes an almost never-ending battle for his children begins. As he must try and get his children back from the clutches of their drug dealing mother he is about to fail. Then a successful yet mean lawyer comes into his life just in time. With her help he might be able get his daughters back and maybe find someone to love just as all hope seemed lost.

This is probably one of Tyler Perry's most realistic films. It has some humor to help lighten the mood and some nice moments to give you a good feeling of whats about to happen.