Saturday, April 6, 2013

Tyler Perry's Temptation (2013): Review

Today I went and saw Tyler Perry's Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor and I was extremely disappointed in this movie.  I had some hopes going in because Tyler Perry movies without him acting in them tend to be better, but I wasn't sure what I was going to get into because the previews seemed to push more of a thriller type feel then his normal character focused drama.  Anyway the movie itself had this some type of uncertainty feel to it. I am going to start with a description of the movie itself and then follow with the few positives and the negative points of the movie.  Keep reading if you want but I would not recommend this movie to anyone and only my personal belief that I should stick it out kept me from walking out of this movie.
Temptation starts with a couple having problems and talking to a marriage counselor.  After the husband storms out from frustration the looking very poor counselor gets the wife to acknowledge that she is interested in someone else.  the counselor goes on to tell the wife a story about her "sister" Judith and the situation she got herself if.  We go into the past and follow this story.  Basically Judith has been in love with Brice since she was a little girl. They marry at eighteen and move to the big city where Brice becomes a pharmacist and Judith gets her degree to become a marriage counselor.  When Judith is twenty five and right out of school she gets a job as the house therapist at a million dollar matchmaker's business.  She has theses big dreams to open her own marriage counselor practice and thinks that it is not worth while to work at her job.  While there she is thrown together with Harly a man who is thinking about investing in the business.  She is tempted by him as he is exciting and focused on her.  There are lots of hints about him being mysterious and dangerous and he does not hide his interest in Judith.  During this time Judith feels ignored by Brice and decides to be tempted away.  This crushes Brice who is just trying to save Judith from her downward spiral.  Can she make it.
I had a hard time with this movie and by ten minutes in I was thinking about walking out, there wasn't anything that i found attractive about any of the main characters and was already tired of their OTT drama (i was not drawn in, like i think the point was).  I kept with it but through the entire movie I could not find myself to care about any of the main characters and was looking forward to snippets of the supporting cast as they are the only real positive of the whole experience. Basically Kim Kardasian, who plays a worker at the match makers, was a positive for me even though she is not lovable, she at least seemed excited to be there.  I really like that Brady was in this movie, she played an employee at the pharmacy, and wanted more focus on her, even though her story line was a bit obvious.  The best part was the owner of the pharmacy, played by Renee Taylor, as she was funny and sharp witted.
Like I said, I didn't connect to the main characters and therefore their struggles, which were bit ridiculous, did not resonate to me.  It seems like all of the characters where unlikable and I couldn't figure out it i was suppose to root for, and although it seemed by the horrible things some of them did, I should hate them but it was just I don't care about any of them.
One of the big problems I have with this movie, and this is a completely biased opinion because I am a licenced counselor was how they played Judith in reference to her profession.  She was complaining that she wanted her own practice but states that she isn't licenced yet. And how did she get a job as a house therapist at a big to do matchmakers place, where she develops compatibility test when she has just graduated. I think it would have worked better if they made her twenty nine turning thirty, that would have made her crisis more real and her melancholy about not really doing what she wanted fit better.  It could have added a bit of worn downness to her instead of whinny new adult that i could have had some connection to.  Also how she interacted with Harley was ridiculous, she acts as if she has no professional boundaries, which would have been no problem, because he wasn't her client, but she gets all therapist on him at times and feeds into him but doesn't get what it going on (come on you really think we by this I didn't know he was an ahole crap).  She even mentions when going over his scores that he has a bit of a mean streak.  I can get that he was exciting and rich but when she meets him she identifies his negative past relationship pattern and not only walks right into it, but complete throws her stated morals out the window while doing it.  Two romps into it, shes using drugs (really?), sneaking out when her Reverend mother is there (really).

I didn't like this movie enough to even edit this, so take it for what it is.  And yes, i understand that i am a bit biased about the whole thing, but this movie and basic storyline had some much potential. Correctly done, I could have bought into the whole tempted by a mysterious man while going through an internal crisis.  Those are emotions that people can relate to, but a key to that, is it needs to be realistic, and not in a it can happen to me way, but in a I can see how that character got there way.  It the focus was more on internal crisis instead of outside way, it could have really drawn me in as a viewer.

My Rating: 0+

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