Diary of a Mad Black Woman (2005)

  Tyler Perry has become an industry to himself.  I don't know when he has time to sleep between acting, producing, directing, and possibly being a superhero. 

That being said, I didn't care for this movie.  I found myself completely disgusted by the main character, Helen, for reasons I will get into in a moment.  First, the plot.

Helen (Kimberley Elise) is thrown out by her controlling husband Charles (Steve Harris) on their eighteenth wedding anniversary.  Homeless, jobless, and with nowhere to go, she turns to her irascible grandmother Madea (Tyler Perry) for help.

Here's my problem:  a long time ago, my ex-husband sold my house out from under me and I got evicted, rendering me homeless and jobless, so I know where the main character is coming from here.  This is why I'm so pissed at her.  She mopes and whines and acts like a total bitch, taking out her issues on every man around her, like it's not her fault she has no skills and no ambition.  Bad things happen in life and sometimes you don't see it coming.  All you can do is pick up the pieces and move on.  Eventually, this woman starts dating the world's most understanding and sensitive U-Haul driver (Shemar Moore) only to drop him like a hot potato when her asshole husband gets shot by his criminal client.  She immediately reverts back to wanting to get even with the man who treated her badly, which she accomplishes by basically giving him Stockholm Syndrome while he's disabled.  Meanwhile, her new boyfriend is left twisting in the wind without so much as an explanation.

I love the concept of vengeance and I have gotten my share, but you don't pursue it to the point where you throw away all your personal growth.  Sometimes letting a person's karma catch up to them is the most cruel thing you can do.  If it was me, I would have laughed at the news report of my ex being loaded into an ambulance, left him to the tender mercies of his new woman, and taken a vacation out of town with my hot boyfriend, all calls forwarded to my attorney.

This was originally a stage play and has been turned into a successful franchise.  I think that's great.  I'm also not opposed to seeing other movies featuring Madea.  This one just rubbed me the wrong way.