By Christina Nicole
Tyler Perry’s Acrimony is about a woman scorned, but it leaves the audience scorned. Tyler Perry has written and directed many films and plays about angry women, and Acrimony is no different.
Instead of Acrimony, the film should be called Agony, because that is what the audience will endure; it drags on for about 15-120 minutes too long. There’s a bit of bate and switch because the film is heavily marketed as a Taraji P. Henson film, but she isn’t in a good third of the movie. A confusing aspect of the film is that Taraji and the actress that plays the younger version of her character inexplicably wear light colored contacts.
There were lots of times throughout the movie when I rolled my eyes so hard and feared they would get stuck.
Tyler Perry is a very busy man, and with all he has going on, he has to work quickly; he shot Acrimony in 8 days. The directing in Acrimony wasn’t bad, but you can tell that even after all of the films and television Tyler Perry has done, his directing style in the film seems heavily influenced by stage productions. There are mainly interior shots, and scenes with vet little camera movement. There is one scene in particular that stands out, a little more than halfway through the film that is lit and shot just like a play.
The acting in the film is slightly better than halfway decent. Taraji carries the film; she is the quintessential “angry black woman” actress, and she has been since Baby Boy. Her character in Acrimony is rightfully angry, but she deals with her anger in extremely unhealthy ways. Taraji’s acting skills try to mask the subpar writing and minimal story. The husband in the film is barely two dimensional and it would seem that for the most part the other characters only live in this world to react to Taraji’s character.
The ending of this film was beyond ridiculous, but honestly, the credits rolling, was my favorite part. There was resounding shocked and annoyed laughter from the crowd; and the gentleman sitting in front of me promptly stood up and declared he wanted his two hours back. I give Acrimony 2 of 5 stars because I like Taraji, in general, and audience reaction was nearly worth the price of admission.
