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Diary of a Mad Black Woman Our rating: Your rating:   MPAA rating: PG-13 (for drug content, thematic elements, crude sexual references and some violence) Theater release: February 25, 2005 by Lions Gate Films Directed by: Darren R. Grant Runtime: 1 hour 56 minutes Cast: Kimberly Elise (Helen McCarter), Steve Harris (Charles McCarter), Tyler Perry (Madea, Joe, Brian), Cicely Tyson (Myrtle), Shemar Moore (Orlando), Tamara Taylor (Debrah), Lisa Marcos (Brenda) Related: Talk About It/Family Corner

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From all appearances, Charles and Helen McCarter (Steve Harris and Kimberly Elise) lead a charmed life. Married almost 18 years, they live in a palatial mansion in an upscale part of Atlanta, where Charles is a successful attorney. But appearances don't tell the whole story. Less than a day after he publicly thanks Helen for her support in his career, Charles comes home and coldly informs Helen that their marriage "has run its course." Having packed her boxes in advance, he moves his mistress into the house and kicks Helen out, leaving her to figure out how to rebuild her life and deal with a load of emotional baggage bigger than the U-Haul holding her stuff. When Charles is shot and paralyzed by a disgruntled client, Helen has to choose between returning home to care for him and taking her revenge.

Kimberly Elise, as Helen, brings A-game acting to a B-movie

Diary of a Mad Black Woman is an adaptation of playwright Tyler Perry's widely successful stage play of the same name. Perry also appears in the movie, playing three characters: Brian, Helen's cousin and attorney; Madea, a much-beloved grandmother-type who appears in many of his works; and Joe, Madea's lecherous brother. Although some critics have derisively labeled his work "chitlin' circuit" theater, Perry counters that his plays bridge the gap between traditional theater and less-respected forms. But whether or not his plays enjoy critical acclaim, they've clearly enjoyed popular success. (Charles and Helen's movie home is actually the mansion of the once-homeless Perry.)

The major storyline focuses on Helen's struggle to put her life back together over the next few months, aided by her mother, Myrtle (Cicely Tyson), Brian, Madea and love interest Orlando (Shemar Moore), who happened to be driving the U-Haul Charles hired to take Helen away. The story traces this recovery arc through a series of Helen's diary entries.

A secondary storyline concerns Brian and wife Debrah (powerfully depicted by Tamara Taylor). Because of her drug addiction, Debrah has left Brian and her two children to live on the streets. Brian must decide whether or not to give her yet another chance to rejoin the family—and must grapple with his fears for their daughter Tiffany, whose personality is similar to her mother's.

Playwright Tyler Perry as Madea, one of three roles he plays in the film

The themes that emerge immediately are obvious: how to deal with relational pain and betrayal, and how wounded people can heal in a healthy emotional space somewhere between pained acceptance and soul-destroying rage before eventually learning to trust again.

For Helen, that means slowly (well, not that slowly—but more about that later) opening her heart to Orlando, who tells her he believes in fairy tales and promises to "love you past your pain." More than once, soap-opera star Moore's delivery of such lines resulted in a mixture of "awwws," groans and belly laughs from audiences at two different screenings. "That's so beautiful," one deep-voiced audience member giggled in a teary stage whisper.

That's not the only place in which the dialogue is less than believable. Still, that's because many of the things that take place in the movie require the reader to suspend disbelief. For example, within a period of weeks, Orlando goes from referring derisively to Helen as "just another bitter black woman" to telling her he likes her hair, to taking her on an accidental first date in which (despite her thinly veiled classism and open suspicion) he looks longingly at her, dances with her and starts the fairy tale talk. Somehow he goes from being an insensitive name-caller to a pop psychologist/suitor spouting lines about getting tough but not hard—just in time for the singer at the jazz club to sing a song dedicated to new couples.

Kimberly Elise brings A-game acting to this B-movie. Her most amazing performance comes when Helen returns to her home to care for the now-paralyzed Charles, only to find that his physical vulnerability—and the fact that he's already been abandoned by his mistress—have not softened his heart or his tongue. She snaps and becomes his caretaker/tormentor, alternating calculated iciness and a mocking warmth with bone-chilling effectiveness. Audiences sympathized with her, clapping as the abused becomes the abuser.

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Catching the Spirit	Printer view
That's how rookie director Darren Grant describes part of the experience of filming Diary of a Mad Black Woman, which opened last week.