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• Thursday, February 23, 2006 08:55 AM

  Hmm. These letters are interesting.

  I didn't see this movie not because I have any problem with Tyler Perry or the character of Madea -- I've seen videos of his plays, and frankly, the Madea character was hilarious and the only one I didn't want to smack upside the head. My blackness was not offended -- I was annoyed as a woman, that the main character allowed her husband to kick her out of her own home, have other women in the home, and then solve her problem by moaning on her knees a lot instead of being proactive, as if her over-the-top suffering beatified her in some way -- THEN, when her husband lost his health and his mobility, she leaves him in a cold bathtub for hours (or was it days? It's been a while) another over-the-top not to mention vicious, vindictive action. So was she supposed to be a beatified saint or a vindictive bitch? And how was I supposed to like or identify with this flimsy character, vacillating between weakling and sadist. So I didn't bother with the movie. (Also I am tired of seeing Kimberly Elise doing all this suffering onscreen -- she is beautiful and talented as is getting unecessarily typecast because of how she looks, that is to say, not like Halle Berry.)

  However, from Tracy's letter in particular, it seems that the movie altered the plot from the stage play significantly, so maybe I'll check it out.

  But I've gotta reiterate, strongly, because I think even the critics missed this (and I know all the people going "Shaddup, I know someone like Madea!" missed this): Madea is not the problem -- the unreasonable, unrealistic and hypercliched supporting characters are the problem, and that is a general, not a "black," thing.

  —mac
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