MOVIE REVIEWS: “WHY DID I GET MARRIED TOO?”

As is the usual case with Tyler Perry movies, Why Did I get Married Too? wasn’t screened for critics. It might as well have been, since the reviews turned out to have been not all that bad — and in some cases were pretty good. In her review in the New York Daily News, Elizabeth Weitzman wrote: “Perry doesn’t take any artistic risks; he’s got a formula, and sticks to it. The point, as always, is to remind viewers that they aren’t the only ones dealing with a straying spouse, a desperate job search, a grievous personal loss. He offers solace in familiarity, relief in low comedy, and comfort in platitudes about love and trust. And who are we to question his logic? The man has built an empire by giving his audience the emotional uplift it wants, critics be damned.” That’s pretty much the theme of a lot of reviews. Cheryl V. Jackson in the Chicago Sun-Times remarked, “There’s something oddly comforting about the familiarity of a Perry flick.” Wesley Morris in the Boston Globe indicated that he didn’t mind paying $11 to see the movie (instead of getting a free invitation from the studio). “I got $111 of drama. That’s Broadway value. But very little on the stage — not even one of Perry’s own plays — has had me sweating, crying, rolling my eyes, and sucking my teeth like this. The movie is 120 minutes of emotional Stairmaster. It’s so exhausting, in fact, that Perry himself has to climb off early, ending the movie without really finishing it.” On the other hand, Rafer Guzmán in Newsday concluded: “Once again, the movie feels amateurish, and not only because Perry tends to shoot on the cheap (the beach looks like a stage backdrop). The story lines ramble, scenes fizzle, the actors shout and weep embarrassingly; nuance is obliterated by sermonizing. In short, it’s another production from a filmmaker who’d rather expand his empire than hone his craft.”