My Thoughts on “Tyler Perry’s Acrimony” 

Like the title suggests, the movie is all about the bitterness of Melinda (Taraji P. Henson) who falls in love with Robert in college and proceeds to have a long term relationship/marriage with Robert even as he sucks her dry financially, physically and emotionally over the years. The shit hits the fan and she finally has had enough, leaves him and voila Robert’s life turns around and he becomes a changed man who is now dating someone. And so begins the acrimony.

Listen, we all know what a Tyler Perry movie entails. Something bad happens and someone has to learn a lesson from it or have something terrible happen to them. Now, I am not on the hate Tyler Perry bandwagon because I actually respect how far he has come and what he has done for black actors and actresses. What I do have a problem is that he is just not an adept storyteller. His movies are on a very basic level and is simply 1+1 =2. BUT I also accept that just because I am not his target audience, doesn’t mean there isn’t an audience that appreciates this (as evidenced by the dialogue at my movie theater. Ugh). Tyler Perry has simply found his niche and has parked his bus there.

Back to Acrimony, and everything I have said above, I went in there to just be entertained. I can’t get my hopes up to expect that the levels will rise. While I was entertained by the movie, I can’t say the quality was up to snuff. A lot of the movie had me catching hiccups and raising eyebrows as to why xyz just happened? The actors were…not just very good, but I will give props to Ajiona Alexus who played young Melinda (and fun fact also played young Cookie on Empire).

I really want better for Taraji as at this point in her career because she seems to have been put in a box. Her acting almost seemed like she was returning a favor to Tyler Perry by doing this movie. Even the voice over narration seemed forced and was basically the equivalent of Gabrielle Union acting in audio form. I wasn’t quite sure what to make of her character because it’s one thing to be butt hurt but it’s another to just go crazy and not take any responsibility. That being said, I definitely liked this movie better than I did Proud Mary (see review here).

The movie made $17 million in its opening weekend and it cost $20 million to make so yay for that win. If you would like to support black cinema, I don’t think it’d be a waste of money to go see it at the movies but if not it would make for a good watch for a girls night in at home.