‘Acrimony’

Tyler Perry’s ‘Acrimony’ (2018) is literally the diary of a mad black woman and the trope is mouldy as hell.

Starring Taraji P Henson as a woman who supports her childhood sweetheart as he struggles to have his invention noticed by an investment company every broke and tense hour of 18 years, this third act thriller, written, produced and directed by Perry, is a mess of stereotypes, ‘Fatal Attraction’ and mixed messages.

Employing an unreliable narrator seething as she relays her story to a therapist, ‘Acrimony’ flashes back to Henson’s character Melinda as a teen who buys her beau a car, then marries him after she catches him cheating.

Ludicrous, dismissive of issues of mental health while downright punitive of the long-suffering black woman who works two jobs while her husband chases his dreams and dumps him just shy of his big break, Perry’s narrative seems to suggest that one should labour emotionally and physically for one’s man indefinitely or perish in the briny deep.

Rewarding of a freeloading, self-absorbed man-child who chases his passion at the expense of his devoted wife who seems to get what’s coming to her because she got fed up and is also mad (perhaps clinically), Perry’s messaging is a mess.

Another film far beneath Henson in the wake of last year’s ‘Proud Mary’, ‘Acrimony’ is Perry being Perry lately. Derivative, slapdash and not even trying.

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