Tyler Perry Why did I get Married Too Reviewer: Joanne Ross Director: Tyler Perry Cast: Tyler Perry, Janet Jackson, Jill Scott, Sharon Leal, Malik Yoba, Ricahrd T. Jones, Tasha Smith

Vacations are supposed to be a time for fun and relaxation. But that isn't the case for the four close couples who travel to the Bahamas for their second marital retreat in Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married Too, the follow-up to his hit 2007 film of the samename. Just as in the first go around, the couples gather to reaffirm their marriage vows. However in the process, tensions arise, secrets are revealed, and one couple makes a shocking admission which throws the group into a tailspin. Following the vacation, each couple grapples with the suspicions and cracks that have been exposed in their respective marriages.

Doctor Terry Brock (Tyler Perry) notices that his lawyer wife Diane (Sharon Leal) is "glowing" of late, taking a bit more care about her appearance. Salon owner Angela Williams (Tasha Smith) suspects her sportscaster husband Marcus (Michael Jai White) of cheating on her -- again -- and is obsessed with obtaining his cell phone password. Recently remarried Sheila Jackson (Jill Scott) is confronted by the unexpected and unwelcome arrival of ex-husband Mike who pokes and prods her new husband Troy (Lamman Rucker). And psychology professor/author Patricia Agnew (Janet Jackson) drops the bomb that she and hubby Gavin (Malik Yoba) are getting a divorce, which turns out to be news to Gavin.

I must admit that Perry is my favorite guilty pleasure. He holds a strange fascination for me because I find him something of a phenomenon. His overtly Christian-infused melodramas and comedies are commercially successful, but cloying and artistically weak; entertaining but ultimately unsatisfying. In his stories his characters struggle with real enough issues, but he gives their conflicts a simplistic treatment. His work is better suited to afternoon television than it is to the big screen. Yet, I make it a point to see all his films, even though I know what to expect. Perry has established his formula and sticks to it. And therein lay the problem -- he's too consistent.

Thankfully this time in Why Did I Get Married Too he doesn't shove his Christian and spiritual beliefs down the throats of the audience as he explores his trademark themes of love, the sanctity of marriage, communication, trust, and infidelity. The topics aren't the problem here or in his work in general. Instead it is his sentimental take on complex issues and relationships and his ham-fisted style of making his point, visually, musically, and dramatically. And Perry seems unable to establish and sustain a consistent tone and mood throughout. Subtlety is not part of his cinematic vocabulary. However, the good news is Why Did I Get Married Too boasts strong performances, particularly by Smith, Jackson, and Yoba. The talented Smith is hilarious as the virago Angela who will stop at nothing to "prove" that hubby Marcus is cheating on her.

Her confrontations with White as Marcus are hysterical and serve as the comic relief to all the melodrama. However, Smith does at times go too far over the top, and her constant screeching plays like a broken record and becomes tiresome after a while. In her earlier scenes, Jackson as Patricia is a little too cloying to be believable but this due in part to how the part was written. However, when Patricia's repressed anger and bitterness surface during the divorce proceedings, Jackson pulls out the stops to deliver a performance that is both ferocious and moving. But here too the radical shift from composed to combative comes too sharp, too fast which makes it seem like Jackson is playing two different characters.

The best performance is delivered by Yoba who brings incredible depth and subtlety to his portrayal of Gavin. Yoba is flawless in capturing and expressing the anger and despair the character experiences when he realizes Patricia no longer loves him. This very fine actor deserves to be in more films. There seems to be no stopping the Perry juggernaut. His formula filmmaking is a hit with audiences-- box office numbers don't lie.

But he falters in his execution and in his insistence on sticking to his formula style which -- like the antics of his great character Medea -- is wearing thin. It's time for Perry to start playing a new tune, or at least, play it differently.-JR