By: debbie lynn elias
Leave it to Tyler Perry to hit us hard with contemplation, emotion and faith during the Easter/Passover season. TEMPTATION: CONFESSIONS OF A MARRIAGE COUNSELOR is a wonderful tool that speaks to, and inspires, an examination and reaffirmation of faith. Adapted from his play by the same name, Perry navigates some very difficult and tempestuous waters, bringing us thoughtful, intelligent, layered characters and story that speak to passion for the Lord versus passion for the flesh.
Judith is a marriage counselor/therapist. Married now for six years to her childhood sweetheart, Brice, she is bored and frustrated with her life, her marriage, herself. Having envisioned “more” at this stage of the game beyond a carefully planned out cautious life by pharmacist Brice and her church-going, god-fearing mother Sarah, Judith is one day faced with all the temptations that life has to offer, and their consequences. Working for a glorified dating service called Wise Counsel as opposed to having her own therapy practice, Judith meets Harley. A social media mogul who wants to invest in Wise Counsel, Harley takes a shine to Judith and entices her with shiny things – fancy dinners, fancy life, fancy plane, fancy clothes, fancy drugs. How can she say no? This is everything she’s never had but believes she’s always wanted. That’s the problem, Judith can’t so no, and turns her back on Brice, Sarah and God, embarking on an obsessive and torrid affair with Harley. As Judith descends deeper into hell, one has to wonder, can she be saved? Can she save herself? And what repercussions will come of her succumbing to TEMPTATION?
As comes as no surprise, Perry’s casting is strong. According to Perry, “I wanted this cast. I wanted a younger cast, a very exciting cast, because not only is this message for everyone, but in particular for younger people as well – just one decision can change your whole life. . . I wanted to have a younger cast of younger beautiful people who are very influential, who have their own following, people who pay attention to everything that [the actors] are doing because this message was so important to me. ”
Jurnee Smollett-Bell just shines with depth and texture, capturing the internal conflict within Judith. Beyond the internal conflicts, though, Smollett-Bell goes through a physical transformance in attitude, stance, rhythmic cadence that mirrors and enhances the emotional changes. Beautifully performed. In speaking about tackling Judith, Smollett-Bell notes, “[T]he most fun part about playing Judith was the challenge. It was definitely a challenge for me to stretch and ‘go there’ emotionally, all the different colors in her arc. She goes from point A to point C. Luckily, I had Tyler to help me steer that because it was sometimes challenging to keep track of where I was at. I just had to keep remembering where I as coming from because we shot out of order. One day I was myself at 14 and the next day I as playing a cocaine addict. I think that’s what you look for as an artist. You look for that kind of challenge. It’s funny to say it was fun, but it was.”
Lance Gross brings a quiet strength to Brice while Robbie Jones comes into his own as an actor, delivering a powerful performance as Harley. For Gross, viewing Brice as “a small town guy”, “I just wanted to make him as real as possible as just your average guy that works hard and loves his wife.”
Joining in the mix is Brandy Norwood as a young woman named Melinda who we discover is a tie between multiple characters. Norwood steps out of her comfort zone and well known music persona to deliver a performance that arcs from fearful and timid to confident, secure and guiding. As Norwood tells it, “I’ve been through a lot in my own life. I’ve had my own ups and downs. I was able to pull from the struggles in my life and bring a truth to the new character, Melinda. It was difficult because I’m in a great place in my life and sometimes when you have to go back into your past and pull from all of those painful, vulnerable moments, you don’t really want to but I had to do that to bring honesty to Melinda.”
But no one tops Ella Joyce when it comes to hitting a home run with conviction and belief in her faith and God in her performance as Sarah. Joyce will make a believer out of you. Interesting is Joyce’s own take on TEMPTATION, particularly the potentially ambiguous interpretation by many with the ending. Without revealing any spoilers, “It’s interesting to hear someone say that they get “the damaged goods at the end” because I felt that there was a more subtle, more powerful message underneath that. And that was redemption. Because yes, [Judith] may have been damaged to the point where she did not have the life that she thought she was gonna have, but if you were paying attention at the very end, she was on her way to church. [With Judith’s counseling a woman], that young girl that she was talking to at the beginning of the movie, walked out, made a serious decision that could have affected her life because someone else was generous enough to share their mistakes with her. You never know how the Lord is gonna use you. The Lord used a great mistake and a great tragedy to raise this girl high, in His estimation, so her reward is another place. It’s not here on this earth. That’s the message I got when I read the script. And when I saw the film, I saw the subtle direction in the way [Tyler] leaves that with you. It’s not written, spelled out for you or beating you over the head with it. But if you were paying attention, what does she say? ‘I’m on my way to meet my mama at church.’ She’s found her way back to her foundation and she’s doing God’s work.”
Delicious is Vanessa Williams who, as Wise Counsel owner Janice, is visually metaphoric for the apple in the Garden of Eden. And yes, Kim Kardashian is in the film as Janice’s fashionista/pop-cultured assistant Ava; and surprisingly, not bad. When it comes to the unusual casting of Kardashian, Perry is quick to point out, “The expectation that I had for her was for her to come in and do her best. . .. I think that it was very responsible for her . . to take part in this film because it is a huge message to carry. I think she did a great job. I’m very very happy with what she did.”
A real treat is Renee Taylor as Brice’s boss and pharmacy owner Mrs. Waco Chapman. Providing not only levity but an observational keen eye, Taylor actually sets the tone as a sage observer, spotting those in trouble and “helping” those in need. Drawn to the character of Mrs. Chapman by “how real it was, how real my part was”, Perry had another prong of the film in mind when casting Taylor. ” She brought so much comic relief that was needed in the film to lighten it just at the right moments. Her timing was perfect. It couldn’t have been a more perfect situation. I’m super excited to have the opportunity [working with Taylor].”
Written and directed by Tyler Perry, as with all of his works, paramount is the messages he imparts to his audience. TEMPTATION is no different. For Perry, “What was more important to me in this film than anything is that I know that there are a lot of people going through things in relationships and I wanted to just raise a flag and say, ‘What happens when you’re tempted?’ One choice, one bad decision can change your entire future and destiny. That’s why I wanted to tell the story. That’s why I took the play version to this version and really extended it and really went into all of those different areas because I really wanted it to have a grounded feel and look, and feel like more reality than anything that I’ve done.”
Interesting is how open to interpretation Perry’s messaging is, something of which Perry is fully aware. “Here’s what I love about when people see my films; a lot of times they get so much more out of it than I was thinking.” With TEMPTATION, bad things happen to good people but when push comes to shove, for Perry, “I made a choice and there’s not going to be a happy bow at the end of this. The choices that you make are the choices that you have to live with in life. I’m dealing with that right now with a very close friend of mine who made a really bad decision and it’s going to affect this person for the rest of their lives. That’s what it was about. . . It’s about these are choices that were made.”
From a production standpoint, the visual contrast and tone within the Elaine Stammerjohn’s richly textured and distinctive production design partnered with Alexander Gruszynski’s cinematography is defining and beautiful. Icing on the cake is Aaron Zigman’s scoring which adds its own layer to the story as an accompaniment that walks alongside the story and the characters without leading the audience or the story by the hand.
At the end of the day, for Tyler Perry his hope for TEMPTATION is this: That the audience finds it speaks to them. “To marriage. To decisions. To the right decisions. The wrong decisions. . To speak to, again, making the right choices and just because you’re tempted doesn’t mean you have to give in. The danger about what [Judith] experienced was exposure. What happens with a lot of young people is they get exposed to the world, they get exposed to all these different things and before you know it, they find themselves trapped by them. So what is important for me and what I want people to walk away with is, ‘It’s okay to be exposed as long as the exposure doesn’t have you.’”
This is one time you should go with the temptation. I did. Tyler Perry definitely tempts, and seduces, you with TEMPTATION: CONFESSIONS OF A MARRIAGE COUNSELOR.
Written and Directed by Tyler Perry
Cast: Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Lance Gross, Robbie Jones, Brandy Norwood, Ella Joyce, Vanessa Williams, Renee Taylor, Kim Kardashian
