Tyler Perry's Good Deeds

There are a few things you know you're going to get in a Tyler Perry movie. You know that it's going to be an urban melodrama, usually revolving around the haves and the have-nots, and that the characterizations are going to be so simple, that if you wrote down all their character traits, it wouldn't take up half of a cocktail napkin. His latest film, Good Deeds, has everything I expected, but also some things I didn't. The melodrama, while still blunt, doesn't seem as blunt as in his past films, and he actually allows his film to have a couple likable, quiet moments. Could Perry be growing somewhat as a filmmaker?

Perry plays Wesley Deeds, a man who comes from a wealthy family and background who has pretty much had his entire life planned out for him by his business head father (now deceased), and his somewhat-manipulative mother (Phylicia Rashad). Wesley has since taken over as the CEO of his father's computer software company, and everything in his life seems to be in order. He has a beautiful and supportive fiance (Gabrielle Union), business is booming, and his life has fallen into somewhat predictable and comfortable routine. In fact, the only thing in his life that seems to be out of order is his eternally hotheaded brother, Walter (an over the top Brian White), who also works at the company, and is still visibly angry that their dad picked Wesley to run the company instead of him.

Walter is a perfect example of the traditional old Perry as a filmmaker and writer - He's one-note, he's over the top, and he brings everything that does work in the film to a screeching halt whenever he's on the screen. Nothing about the character seems genuine. He exists simply to walk around and be an ass to everyone he just happens to be sharing the screen with. The opening moments of the film are mainly centered on the tense relationship between the brothers (as well as the equally tense relationship Walter has with their mother), which did not fill me with hope. But then the film's central plot kicks in, and things improve a little bit. This concerns the lovely, yet blunt and outspoken, Lindsey (Thandie Newton). Lindsey is a working class woman who works as a cleaning lady at the company, and is struggling to support her six-year-old daughter (the adorable Jordenn Thompson) after they were kicked out of their apartment.

We're pretty much one step ahead of the characters the entire time. We know that Wesley and Lindsey are initially not going to get along at first (an argument erupts when Lindsey parks in Wesley's private parking space), but as they spend time together, they learn that they have a lot in common, and Wesley begins to sympathize with Lindsey's private struggles. Originality has never been Perry's strong suit, and he proves that again in Good Deeds. But, Newton and Perry have a surprising amount of chemistry together on screen, and actually get a couple scenes together where they get to act like real people, not characters being manipulated by a lame brained soap opera plot. I liked these moments, and groaned a little whenever the more over the top characters showed up to kick the plot back in motion.

I'm sure it's no surprise that the relationship between Wesley and Lindsey grows to the point that Wesley's fiance begins to feel threatened. Once again, Perry shows a sign of maturity in how he handles this subplot. The woman Wesley is set to marry is a decent and kind woman. We like her, and we sympathize with her when she vents her frustrations about how predictable and dull their life has become together, even before they are actually married. And when she does find out about Lindsey, she does not suddenly turn into an over the top and evil villain character. Her last scene with Wesley is quiet, rational, and almost touching. This shows a remarkable amount of restraint on Perry's part, who usually makes his characters into such broad live action cartoons, we can't believe them as people. Here, there are moments of honesty, mixed in with more than a few of his traditional over the top moments.

I guess you could call Good Deeds a mixed bag. It shows signs that Perry is trying to move away from what he is known for, but he still feels a need to throw in some elements that his fanbase have come to love. I will say this - this is the closest I have come to actually enjoying a Tyler Perry movie. I'm not recommending it, as it's far too uneven and melodramatic at times to work. But, watching the film, there were a few moments where I actually found myself interested in the characters.

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