I guess I'm willing to give her more of a pass simply because the weight of the movie is not on her

Meaning, her character's not the emotional center of the film

Jill Scott's character is

^^^ She's asked to carry the film emotionally more than Janet, imo, even with that alleged "corny" breakdown scene with her and Malik Yoba (imo, the scene went on about 2 minutes too long but otherwise was ok)

As the straitlaced professor, Janet's character wasn't really asked to do much except play the "straight man" to everyone around her, particularly Tasha Smith

And because of that I really didn't find much fault with her performance

But yeah, everything else you wrote here was spot-on

And again, it reinforces my notion that what Tyler does, he does EXTREMELY well, and that's present "raw" and (at times) over-the-top emotion

From an emotional standpoint, he's one of the best storytellers out there

And from a plot, dialogue, and visual standpoint, he's not one of the best

(and yeah, we know, we get it, thanks)

I mean, this movie is almost designed like a sitcom (actually, more like one of his plays), in that you have moments and lines that are there for the sole purpose of eliciting applause or agreement ("Tell em, girl!") from the audience

Emotional audience participation, even in a movie theater, is key to his appeal

In other words, you shouldn't be going to a Tyler Perry film to see the cinematography or the intricate plotting

^^^ Not a diss, btw

Because that whole plot device of having the big girl get off the plane in lieu of the "friend," then having the big girl drive in the snow while asking Jesus to guide her trip (and also save her marriage while He's at it) is one of the shittier pieces of writing I've seen in a long time

Like, why couldn't Jill have just missed the plane by getting stuck in traffic or some other reason? I would have had no problem believing, for example, that Jill just missed the plane because she had to run a series of ridiculous errands for her lame husband, some evil, manipulative shit that he had her do to ensure that she would miss that plane

Anything other than the flimsy, "have the evil white dude complain about the fat black woman, then have her no-good husband not have her back and instead ogle the thin brown girl next to him instead" scene that we got

And again, knowing Tyler's steeze, I understand *why* it's there, but that doesn't mean that it *should* be there, because it was bad

And on a related note I'm not sure you'd see a character like Richard T. Jones' in another film except a Tyler Perry one

That's bad if you're looking for a character with some subtlety, but good if you're looking for a guy to (loudly) boo in a Tyler Perry film

I wonder if Richard watched any tapes of The Rock when he was a heel in WWE in preparation for the role

In any event, aforementioned plot issues aside, I enjoyed myself for the most part, though the movie could have been trimmed by about 20 minutes. And on a personal note I'd like to thank Mr. Perry and his D.P. for the shots of Jill Scott's pretty-ass toes... I'm just sayin'...

Here's hoping that in the future his filmmaking skills catch up to his emotional storytelling skills...
______________________________________________________________________
I have no remorse
So check me out in The Source