mc_thou

I am a Tyler Perry fan and have purchased some of his movies. I was really looking forward to a Christmas movie with Madea but was I ever disappointed.

WARNING: This is a play not a movie and it has a fake lifeless feel. The play starts with the characters each standing in the room of a house and singing a Christmas carol. This lousy singing was my first clue that this movie was going to be a bust. No talent there. And it just gets worse. I turned the movie off after 20 minutes. It was going nowhere and the acting was lacklustre and seemed forced. The live audience seemed to see humour in the dialogue; maybe I'm missing something but the movie had me cringing instead of laughing.

What happened Tyler Perry?! This play is not up to your usual calibre. Don't waste our time and money on this one.

Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones play a couple who have been married for 31 years but their marriage has become route and stale. They've become two roommates sharing the same house. They even sleep in separate bedrooms. Meryl Streep decides that this isn't what she wants for the rest of their married life and coaxes Tommy Lee Jones to attend intensive couple counselling. Both do an excellent job of portraying partners who deep down still love each other but are unable to connect or communicate. Steve Clavell does a superb job of playing the counsellor. No wise cracks or humour here.

There is lots of subtle humour but this is not a laugh out loud movie. You may see the humour more in how these characters portray people you know well - like your own spouse or your parents.

The counselling proves not to be a miracle cure but it does open the door of each parter's heart enough to start healing. The movie takes you back and forth between the feelings of hopelessness, despair, extreme sadness and rays of hope and intimacy. Marriage is a lot of hard work and that comes across well.

Bravo to Streep and Jones in giving depth and intensity to these characters and not feeding us a quick fix fairy tale ending. Both shine in their roles. This is a touching movie that will stay with you for a long time.

I only ended up watching this movie because the husband of a friend I was visiting selected this. I just don't understand all the positive reviews. Am I missing something? Is there something wrong with me because I can't appreciate disturbing gratuitous violence? I watched the first half hour of this movie and had to walk away. The level of gore, violence, and sadism was so disturbing. How can doing horrible unspeakable acts to other humans be considered art? What is the point of this movie? If you enjoy non-ending pointless violence, blood, and gore, I guess you won't be disappointed.

I found this movie so disturbing that I couldn't shake the images from my head for several days afterwards. I appreciate movies that are disturbing in their social commentary and make me think, but in what world does the setting of this movie even exist?! I may get slammed by those who loved the movie for being old-fashion and prudish but this movie goes way beyond any acceptable level of violence. It's disturbing that this movie gets any positive reviews.