Tyler Perry posted online that this film is an homage to Jason's Lyric (1994) and Love Jones (1997), two of the best African American romance films that have ever been made. It's a high bar to set. Perry has directed over 30 features. I would argue that many wouldn't hope to clear that bar. This one comes close. Yet, there's a weight and gravitas to those 90's films that this production doesn't exactly have. Perry comes so close. Where the misstep might have occurred was in the characterization of his male lead. His protagonist is too perfect. It's not that the character can't be good or noble, but it pushes this story more toward fairy tale. Even though Perry's Prince Charming is a former prison inmate, he still comes across as Mr. Perfect, an angel archetype.
Jay Reeves (Nemesis and All American) stars as Carousel White, a 25-year-old who served 10 years in prison, meaning he was incarcerated when he was just a teenager. He was a kid who got caught up with the wrong people, so the film practically makes him blameless, even for an attempted murder charge. There is a point that is made that due to his incarceration at a young age, there are a lot of things he hasn't experienced, specifically he's a virgin. He's never dated or had sex. This point is raised, but Perry's script never makes this a true issue for Carousel or a stumbling block in his relationship that is core here. His time in prison doesn't seem to have had any negative effects or lasting trauma on him at all. In fact, his time in prison afforded him the opportunity to study the law in order to give him skills so that he can at least act like a lawyer.
ABC's For Life (2020) was about a Black man who learns to become a lawyer while in prison. It was based on a true story, so the idea of Carousel getting or having skills to be a lawyer, while in prison, isn't what I'm criticizing. What I'm criticizing is beyond Carousel saying that he would never want to go back to prison and him loving his freedom, prison didn't seem to have had any ill repercussions for him. At one point, Carousel is seen making art, in particular paintings. One day, his paintings are stolen from his prison cell. One of which ends up in an art gallery in Atlanta. An investigation into how that happened is skipped, if only to get to a point of financial benefit for Carousel, so even having his art stolen turns out to be a positive for him. Again, Carousel is perfect or things end up perfectly happening for him.
Naomi Baker (All American: Homecoming) also stars as Anika Morrison, a former prison guard who worked at the same facility where Carousel was incarcerated. She's a single mom who lives with her single mom. Anika's mother though is sick, a cancer patient, so Anika has to care for her. Anika has sisters who aren't able to help with the care as much. Anika wants to go to nursing school, but she can't afford it. She currently works at a gas station and can't seem to get ahead. It's not clear, but she might be paying the bills at her mom's house and maybe her mom's medical care. Either way, she can't save for nursing school, which is something she really wants.
Tamberla Perry (Brilliant Minds and How To Get Away with Murder) co-stars as Cathy, the mother to Anika and her two sisters. Of all the actors, she's giving the best performance. She also has the most interesting arc. She's been burned by so many men, starting with the three fathers of her three daughters. She was also burned by her employer, a chemical plant that has allegedly caused her career. She sees Anika's relationship with Carousel, as another potential burning, but for Anika. Cathy is overly protective but her bad thoughts are due to her not bothering to get to know Carousel.
The film has established Carousel as such an angel, and as such a good guy, that Cathy's antipathy toward him feels so unwarranted that there's no tension or real drama to her not liking him. The film suggests Carousel might be doing something untoward, but it's such an obvious red herring that it never lands in a dramatic way to be an effective, emotional punch. Earlier this year, Rashad Frett's Ricky (2026) was another film about a Black man being released from prison and having to adjust to life on the outside. Frett's film has it be an actual struggle for that Black man who makes several missteps. He's not perfect. Here, however, Carousel is too perfect. He's too good to be true, which makes it feel like it's not true.
Again, this is okay, if one considers this film as more of a fairy tale, rather than the gritty love story that Jason's Lyric was. If Perry was truly paying homage to Jason's Lyric, he slightly missed the mark. One might see Jason in Jason's Lyric as this perfect guy, but he wasn't. Jason made mistakes. Spoiler alert for that 1994 classic! Jason killed someone when he was a child, much like Carousel attempted to kill someone when he was a child. Jason is haunted by the death. He refuses to see the psychological damage that the death did to his younger brother. Jason is also capable of acts of violence that makes him come across as a thug, which is the label his brother was given.
Carousel doesn't seem haunted, despite him trying to kill someone, and he doesn't make any real mistakes that shows him struggling in any kind of way. Anika feels akin to the character of Lyric in Jason's Lyric, so if anything, Perry gets it half right. Yet, Jason's Lyric had a strong sense of Black-on-Black sexuality that's lacking here. Perry has done Black sexuality before, so he's not incapable. It's just lacking here with reason, but again, if Perry is paying homage to Jason's Lyric or even Love Jones, those films have a heat to them that is lacking here.
Rated TV-MA.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 48 mins.
Available on Netflix.
