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• Thursday, February 23, 2006 05:40 AM

  Shrill?

  Shrill Black women? Have you seen "Diary of a Mad Black Woman," or just the trailer? The main character is the exact opposite of shrill, and the message of the story is the complete opposite of giving in to revenge or anger. Medea is simply comic relief, and appears in only a few scenes.

  For those who haven't seen the movie, here's a brief synopsis, which I hope captures the essence and the message...then judge for yourself. To the best of my recollection, the main character's rich lawyer husband kicks her out in favor of another woman. She slinks home to Mama (I believe Medea is the grandmother...someone please correct me if I'm wrong.) Her mother is sedate and religious. There is another female character in the extended family, who is broken down by drug abuse, and her tween-age daughter, who wants to sing in the choir. Her broken mom doesn't want her daughter to see her like that. None of these female characters is in the least bit shrill.

  While slowly trying to rebuild her life, the main character meets another man, a nice factory worker. But she puts off sleeping with him because she's still married. In one scene I believe it is her mother who counsels, "Don't be opening that door before you close the other one," or something like that. In this scene, I believe Medea is present, carrying on, but Medea is in the background and the mother's words prevail. The main character acknowledges she isn't going to start a relationship with the new man until her divorce is final. The religion is taken as a matter-of-fact part of life in this movie, not compartmentalized and not danced around on tiptoe. I don't know how to explain this. Medea may be in the background making fun, but her attitude doesn't prevail as the movie unfolds.

  Meanwhile, the rich lawyer/errant husband is paralyzed by a gunshot from a dope dealer he refused to defend (or something like that.) His new girlfriend takes off now that he's in a wheelchair. The main character tells her new boyfriend that she's got to go take care of her paralyzed estranged husband because they're still married. She shows up and there he is in a wheelchair in his big mansion, helpless. For several days she is mightily tempted to take revenge, and gives him a piece of her mind but not in a shrill way. But she stays and takes care of him, gritting her teeth all the way, until he is rehabilitated.

  Finally the now-repentant, rich, rehabilitated husband asks her to take him back, but--not really a martyr though she did perform acts of sacrifice--she smiles sweetly and quietly hands him the final divorce papers and goes to the factory to ask if the hardworking factory guy will make a future with her now that she's free. Somewhere in there, the broken drug addict pulls her life together and shows up to see her daughter sing in the choir.

  I hate people who think plot summaries are "conversation" but I think the plot here speaks for itself. Medea and her lecherous (is it a husband or son-in-law? I forget) only provide some comic relief in a movie that otherwise, although sappy in places, has a message about self-sacrifice (though not martyrdom) and it isn't unrealistic from watching the religious Black women that I know.

  I had not stepped foot inside a church for nearly 20 years and this movie really moved me spiritually...not the Medea part, but the parts where the characters made hard decisions whether to stay angry or help someone who needed help WHILE angry. That's 90 percent of the movie.

  Anyway, no one in the movie that I can remember struck me as "shrill."

  —Anonymous
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