This is Tyler Perry's 25th feature as director. He wrote the screenplay, which is his 26th where he has produced and directed himself. The only film that Perry wrote, which he didn't direct, was his first, that of Diary of a Mad Black Woman (2005). There have been similar themes or characterizations that he has repeated in his subsequent films that originated in his 2005 hit. Perry has in many ways established a formula or template for many of his films. Often, his narratives center on a Black woman who has been wronged by her husband or is married to a man who is abusive, unfaithful or misogynistic. Often, her husband is a combination of all three. Perry's films often contrast this horrible husband trope with the Black woman meeting and falling in love with a man who is the exact opposite, strong but sensitive, wholesome, spiritual or religious and in general beyond nice and gentlemanly. Because Perry loves religious themes and because he loves quoting Biblical scripture, his protagonist often toggles between a literal devil and angel in her love interests.
For this film, Tyler Perry basically replicates that dynamic, but, Perry has become accustomed with taking that dynamic or that template he established in Diary of a Mad Black Woman and bending it to extremes. Not just in his films but also in his various TV shows, Perry has played with the issue of domestic abuse or domestic violence, often taking it to ridiculous levels. What he's doing here isn't that different from what movie-goers got back in the 80's and 90's with thrillers like Fatal Attraction (1987) with Glenn Close or Fear (1996) with Mark Wahlberg. What Perry is doing is also in line with a lot of Lifetime and Hallmark movies or even recent streaming films that often involve women being in peril by psychotic ex-lovers. There's so many of them that they could be their own genre.
Meagan Good (Shazam! Fury of the Gods and Think Like a Man) stars as Ava, a woman who is married to an abusive man. She works at a bank in downtown Atlanta. Yet, she was raised in the rural areas and is essentially a country girl. There is a reference to her running track, so she was perhaps an athlete. The only other detail we get is that she's the daughter of the preacher of their local church, a preacher who's also a horse farmer. There also seems to be some confusion about her age. At one point, she says she's 37-years-old, but, frequently throughout the film, she keeps insisting that she's almost 40. Technically, she's correct, but if she's truly 37, her making a big deal about being almost 40 seems odd without there being a specific reason as to where this insistence is originating.
Much in the same way that Beyoncé released Cowboy Carter (2024) and is showing, along with other Black artists, that African Americans have been a part of country-western culture forever. This film definitely feels like Perry doing his version of Cowboy Carter. From the location, to the visuals and even the music on the soundtrack, references to Chris Stapleton, this is very much a country film. The only thing it lacks is Meagan Good on a horse, which is odd because her character's father is a horse farmer.
Cory Hardrict (All American: Homecoming and The Chi) co-stars as Dallas Bertran, the husband to Ava. We're not sure what he does for work. He references going to a job but we never learn what it is. The only thing we know is that Dallas is part of a family of brothers who are criminals or who have been in and out of prison. He's also the son of a matriarch who appears to be single and a firebrand. Dallas' mother also appears to run her family and command her boys with an iron fist. Dallas' family seems to hate Ava's. Apparently, Dallas knew Ava in high school, but we get very little of their courtship.
The film is obviously establishing a triangle. It's always helpful though when the love triangle has love on both sides. The problem here is that Perry never really shows us the love between Ava and Dallas at least not in a way that ever makes us understand their relationship. For example, I never buy at any point that Dallas loves Ava. There's a tossed off line about Ava liking to rescue stray cats and apparently stray men. However, it never gives us a complete picture to feel for that side of the triangle. Dallas is one-note throughout the film, being hateful and nothing more. It makes the ending rather predictable regarding whom Ava should choose.
Joseph Lee Anderson (Young Rock and MacGruber) also co-stars as Benji, a recently divorced man and single father who works as a farmer in the country, not too far from where Ava grew up and where her parents currently live. He also went to high school with Ava. Apparently, there might have been something between them, but a series of circumstances put them into different relationships. Now, he happens to be divorced and single at the same time as Ava, but we're to believe that he's this perfect man, which Anderson certainly sells effectively. Yet, if he's so perfect, then why is he divorcing? The film never really shows us what went wrong with his previous relationship. It's as if he's only divorced in order to give him something with which he can relate to Ava. Otherwise, he literally is an angel in flannel and sleeveless jean shirts.
I doubt Perry cares about that kind of narrative intrigue or subtlety. He wants Ava's choice between these two men to be obvious. That would be fine if the later thrills were more interesting. Yes, Dallas is the villain and Benji is the hero, but Dallas is a very lame and ineffectual villain. It would have been more fun, if Dallas were better at his villainy. It would have also been more fun if Benji had more interesting hurdles to overcome. Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction was a great villain and so was Mark Wahlberg in Fear. In those films, they were terrifying and it seemed as if they might get away or succeed in their crimes. I never at any point was terrified of Dallas or thought he might succeed at all or get away with anything. It never seems at all that he's any kind of a match for Benji, if not physically then even mentally. Dallas should give Benji a run for his money, or even Ava a run for hers, but the battle between Dallas and Ava or Dallas and Benji ends up being rather pathetic from a storytelling perspective.
Rated R for language, some sexual content and violence.
Running Time: 2 hrs. and 1 min.
Available on Amazon Prime.