Saturday, January 31, 2009

Not Easily Broken

It is absolutely incredible that men marry woman like this. And this is after they know they have a mother in law just as terrible as the daughter. Should society feel sorry for this person or man who chose to marry this woman?

Well, this man is Morris Chestnut who plays Dave Johnson, just a regular guy who has an unhealthy marriage does not realize it. His wife harangues him on every issue. The only good thing in the movie is when she gets hurt in the car wreck and not him. Ofcourse she lives, which is a tragedy and she just verbally assaults Johnson during her rehab. On top of that, the mother in law has moved in to "supervise" the rehab. The ironic detail here is, is that it is her fault her husband got into the car wreck. Luckily they were not sued in civil court and did not lose everything. Johnson's wife, Taraji P. Henson who plays Clarice Clark plays this role exceptionally well. The nasty and man hater role, she receives an A- in this role. It also appears her mother probably drove her father away since he is never shown. It would not surprise me at all.

Johnson has two loyal friends who are both professionals and have stable careers but the mother in law thinks they are gang members.

His wife diatribe's are pushing him away. She does understand men at all. He wants to have children and she wants to spend money they do not have. She tries to buy a meal for a bunch of people when she has not been working and her husband is not content with that. They are married so his money is her money but the way she says like she has full control and just asserts herself like that, not good. The card bounces and this only exacerbates the situation. Fortunately, another diner at their table picks up that tab. But this does not prevent his wife from screaming at him when they return home.

More tragedy occurs when one of Johnson's kids dies in a swimming accident. That is a freak accident and perhaps may be a little too fictional but it does bring more drama to this well shot film. Johnson is an active child mentor, in baseball and in swimming. Something his wife and mother in law despise. That is right, they loath him for it. Fascinating. He married the wrong woman.

This movie verifies it's theme: be careful who one marries and be happy with what one has. Decent music in the movie, nothing memorable. Not a spectacular film, but solid nevertheless.

Wood Harris from Remember the Titans is involved in this film. He was one of the fierce linebackers on the team. He is a strict father who kills the idea of his son having a dream. Just because he tossed away everything and chose drugs over his baseball scholarship, he targets the world for his bad choices. He does not allow his boy to have fun and is integral on why the boy is to tightly wound. This is another element to this movie.

Johnson has a friend who provides some comedy relief. He is funny.

Johnson's wife realizes she has been in the wrong and horrible to be around. She explains this to him and they call off the divorce. This movie works itself in the end, it took some physical exertion and a different perspective. The characters figure it out. And Johnson and his wife are set to have a baby at the end of this film. Allot of dramatic scenes but happiness and sensibility prevails.

I allocate three stars to this movie.***

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