Shame On OprahWritten by Tamika Johnson
I like Oprah with best of them but I’m sorely disappointed in her interpretation of Zora Neale Hurston’s classic novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. I’m not sure if it was in interest of time, universal appeal or just a desire to focus on love story of Tea Cake and Janie, but taking all of racial elements out of movie destroyed what is a beautiful love story and also made movie’s narrative disjointed and rushed.Hurston’s story, outside of being a coming of age story about a young black woman in deep-south, is very much a story about intra-racial issues that plague black community at that time and while it is a shame to say, today. Many of characters in novel are only a generation or two removed from slavery and with that color hierarchy that was created doing slave times was very much still in play for Janie and other characters in novel. In novel Tea Cake is a dark skinned man, something you wouldn’t know by choosing very fair, blue eyed Michael Ealy to play this character. It is important that Tea Cake is dark because that was as much of a scandal for her community as was Tea Cake’s age. Tea Cake was wrong kind of Negro for many reasons: he was poor, he was young and he was dark. The fair skinned, rich Ms. Janie shouldn’t be seen with such a man. Also his skin color comes into play when they make their way to Everglades and Janie befriends a woman who has a deep hatred for dark skinned Negroes and goes out of her way to set Janie up with her fair skinned, more socially acceptable brother.
| | Diary of a Mad Black Woman Doesn’t Disappoint, Unfortunately That’s the Problem.Written by Tamika Johnson
Tyler Perry strikes again as he brings his hugely successful theatrical stage play Diary of a Mad Black Woman to movie theaters nation wide. A cultural phenomenon, this is Perry’s chance to bring his play to a larger audience, unfortunately movie, much like play, falls flat.Diary follows life of Helen (Kimberly Elise) as she tries to put her life back to together after her husband, played by Steve Harris of The Practice fame, unceremoniously and rather cruelly throws her out of their sprawling mansion, officially ending their eighteen year marriage. Simple enough story right? Predictable but workable? Well if Diary had just stayed with that storyline then yes, it might have been a predictable but a rather entertaining film. Instead, Diary doesn’t stick to just that story line. It goes on to produce not one but five other subplots. These extra stories turn movie into one big muddled mess that is never sure which way it is going. In his defense Perry’s play is this muddled as well and what saves his play is same thing that saves this film: Madea. Madea is Helen’s trash talking, pistol toting, you’re going to respect me or I’ll put a cap in your behind, grandma. Played by Perry himself she steals film and makes sitting through this 116min rambling mess worth it.
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