Even if Perry had toned things down a notch or 12, it probably would not have helped matters much because "Temptation" is one of those movies in which absolutely nothing works except as camp. Perry does have a knack for connecting with audiences in ways that most filmmakers can only aspire to and to see him waste that ability on junk like this is sad. And yet, as dreadful as that sounds, "Temptation" is so bad that it could actually turn out to be as Perry's cinematic high-water mark for the year.
Peter Sobczynski is a contributor to eFilmcritic. Rated PG for some violence, sexuality and drug content. Kim Kardashian as Ava. Vanessa Williams as Janice. Jurnee Smollett-Bell as Judith. Robbie Jones as Harley. Ella Joyce as Sarah. Brandy Norwood as Melinda. Lance Gross as Brice. Reviews So bad, the temptation is to laugh. Peter Sobczynski March 27, Now streaming on:.
Powered by JustWatch. The Bottom Line This heavy-handed melodrama represents one of Tyler Perry's weakest efforts ever, and that's saying something. Married to her childhood sweetheart Brice Lance Gross , a druggist whose modest lifelong dream is to someday own his own pharmacy, she finds herself increasingly unhappy over such transgressions as his forgetting her birthday two years in a row.
The chiseled Harley — who owns a townhouse to die for and a private plane — pours on the charm and ultimately seduces Judith during a business trip to New Orleans. Almost immediately afterward, he reveals his true colors as an abusive womanizer and drug and alcohol abuser.
Suddenly the previously prim and decorous Judith is wearing revealing outfits, swigging champagne and snorting cocaine, much to the consternation of her cuckolded husband and her mother Sarah Ella Joyce , a reverend who communicates mostly through shouted biblical quotations. Perry seems to have little sympathy for his troubled lead character who impulsively leaves her perfectly decent husband even after he serenades her with an Otis Redding song while wearing only boxers, revealing a perfectly toned body that had female audience members gasping.
While this is happening, nice guy Brice remains attuned to life's simple pleasures: his wife's cooking, and sex in the missionary position and only the missionary position.
Then there's Judith's mother, Ms. Sara Ella Joyce , who is extremely religious and admonishes Judith for wanting more out of life than cooking for her husband and having sex in the missionary position. Brice does little to shield Judith from these attacks, and I, for one, felt some sympathy for Judith. Life is complicated and, yes, nice people fall in and out of love. In the narrative of this movie, however, Judith is unquestionably the villain, and Brice and Ms.
Sara are the heroes. I am not condoning the act of cheating on one's spouse with the third-most-successful social-media entrepreneur in the world. But "Tyler Perry's Temptations" punishes Judith by That seems quite cruel, for a number of reasons.
At the top of my list: AIDS is a real disease that millions of people struggle with everyday, and yet here it's a comeuppance device on a par with Belloq and Toht's melting faces after looking into the Ark of the Covenant. But here's the big twist: pretty much everyone in the movie now has HIV because of his or her infidelity.
Judith has HIV because she slept with Harley. Harley has HIV because he sleeps with everyone unprotected, we assume.
Melinda has HIV because she, too, slept with Harley, even though she was in a relationship with him and, as far as we know, remained loyal to him. Brice does not have HIV, because he did "the right thing. The HIV storyline appears to exist for the sake of shock value. Throughout the movie, Melinda hints at having left behind an abusive relationship, and simple math involving male cast members makes it easy to deduce that the abusive ex would turn out to be Harley.
This was a red herring. Before making that obvious reveal, Melinda spills the secret of her HIV infection -- which comes out of absolutely nowhere.
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