Tentation - Confessions d'une femme mariée

For the longest time, I have judged movies based on the reviews of top critics. I have mostly never gone wrong with their ratings. But this time, I believe many of them missed it.

I can understand some of them being grossly dissatisfied with the usual melodrama. However, with Tyler Perry's Temptation, the movie goes beyond the ratings that the top critics have given to it. Fine, it has its fair share of what I will refer to as "tylertypical" but at the end of the day, it presents a story that has depth, meaning and a graphic reminder of what happens and is still happening to so many marriages around the world.

This time, disregard the top critics and go see this movie. It will give you the kind of experience that will leave you and your movie buddies talking for a long time. In fact, beyond the movie, you will find yourself discussing true life issues that affect so many relationships and marriages. Issues like trust, forgiveness, restitution, choices, consequence, peer pressure are some of the topics that Tyler addresses in Temptation.

It's a must-watch. I think it's one of Tyler's best movies to date. Go see it.

Temptation is a step up from Tyler Perry's previous ho-hum Alex Cross, but it still a far cry from being the kind film one would gush over. The two biggest draws in the film are Jurnee Smollett-Bell and Kim Kardashian. Smollett, who in her last film "The Great Debaters" (2007) gave an outstanding performance in great chemistry with stellar young ensemble, was not as bless with as high of a cast quality. Nevertheless, her acting as the seduced wife Judith was stretched in some new ways in "Temptation" and on the whole she doesn't do badly.

Kardashian, is irritating in her role as Ava, Judith's work colleague, but then again, that is what her character is suppose to be. As such -- many other critics' assessment notwithstanding, Kardashian's acting is neither good nor bad, but simply OK.

As for the plot, Tyler Perry(writer and director) puts forward an interesting treatment of the issues of spousal and professional dissatisfaction, and how that can be used in a seduction passion play. A decent directorial effort, but Perry is still struggling with some filmmaking fundamentals such as pacing, camera angle decisions, and very irritatingly, sound editing. There were points where the critical dialogue of protagonists seducer and seducee was too mumbled to be anything close to erotic.

The film's biggest failing is the sexual chemistry between Judith and Harley(played by Robbie Jones). It just doesn't seem like a credible attraction. Whether the actors, casting or direction is to blame, who knows? But any Perry movie these days has to be considered high profile -- if for no other reason than his large audience drawing -- and as such, anything short of smoking sexual chemistry represents a critical movie failure. I keep rooting for Perry, but this is typical of his best films -- mixed quality, mixed results.

Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor was conceptually a good film. It is basically about a couple who love each other, however things start getting a little bland at home and the wife feels like she is being taken for granted and things have gotten to be routine and boring. Judith (Jurnee Smolett-Bell) and Brice (Lance Gross) have known each other since they were children and they were destined to eventually get married and start a life together. Judith works for Janice (Vanessa L. Williams) at a high-end dating service. Janice has a weird French accent which struck me as kind of stupid. Her assistant is Ava (Kim Kardashian) who is a snotty (put expletive here). I am not sure if Ms. Kardashian had to do any acting in this film since I can totally see her saying everything that she said in this film in real life. Brice is your typical man and husband. He tries his hardest to keep Judith happy, but things are just not as exciting as Judith would like it to be. Brice works in a pharmacy and hopes to someday have his own pharmacy. Melinda (Brandy Norwood) is hired at the pharmacy and eventually becomes a major player in the story. Both Brice and Melinda work for Ms. Waco Chapman (Renee Taylor) who is the comic relief in the film. She had me cracking up. Basically, life is pretty normal and not that exciting. Along comes Harley (Robbie Jones) who is a multi-millionaire who is interested in investing in Janice's business. He is immediately smitten by Judith and the games begin. I think that the cast did an "okay" job, but I am not sure why there were so many skyline shots in the film. The film does deliver a good message, as all of Tyler Perry's films do. There is always a moral to the story and this one is no different. There is also the familiar religious aspect to the film. The one thing that I like about going to see a Tyler Perry film is that the audience reacts out loud and no one complains. I thought that the film moved at a good pace and there were a couple of twists and turns (which I totally saw coming), however the audience didn't. I looked around and thought to myself "ya'll didn't see that coming?" Apparently they did not. There were some things in the film that did not make sense to me, but I'll let you be the judge. Anyway, the film delivers a good message and for that reason I am giving it an amber light.

Simple. Stupid. Seriously flawed. "This yo plane?" Really? This is how a college-educated woman speaks? I had a really difficult time getting through this movie. It was that awful and there was so much to overlook to keep watching. The first being the role awarded to Kim Kardashian. This woman CAN NOT ACT! She was horrible. But, Jurnee, who actually is a good actress wasn't much better. The script was absurd. And for a woman that was supposed to be smart, boy was she stupid. First, walking down the street she is horrified that her husband doesn't step to three thugs who call her a name. Really? Then, some sort of smooth-talking guy (seriously debatable) makes it obvious he wants to screw her and only then is there a problem with her marriage. And who would ask advice from an office-mate whose every word is debasing and demoralizing. And, it was more than apparent that Brandy's character's ex *SPOILER ALERT* would be the demonized Harley, who also just happens to have HIV. Really? The moral to the story, cheat on your husband and get HIV. Turn away from God and get HIV. Disrespect your mother and get HIV. I give Tyler Perry two stars for at least changing it up a bit with the characters. For once all the dark-skinned people weren't villains and all the light-skinned folks angels.

I went to this film eager to see just how bad it would be and I was not let down. As if you couldn't tell from the previews, there is crazy over the top ridiculous dialogue and annoying or ultimately unlikable characters all delivered to us by extremely glamorous "actors". No one expected Kim kardashian to knock this one out of the park either...if she is smart she won't stop acting on her reality show. I love Vanessa Williams but I was so annoyed with her accent in this film. Personally I prefer Judith's husband looks wise than that of her Temptation and my friends all agreed. Without spoiling the movie all I can really say if you can enjoy a movie for being Soo bad you find it good, then you will enjoy the movie like I did.