vesil_vesalier Somehow I thought that having Kim Kardashian in a Tyler Perry movie was surprising. I mean, think about it: She is the ultimate vixen, the very definition of a harpy, she calls men to her bed and steals all of their money. For the man who worships God like no other, to see her in one of his movies was a shock.To see the movie itself was a bigger one.I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Tyler Perry's work is almost always a well for wasted potential. It's a pity that nothing that he makes fails—if it did, he might actually learn something about storytelling, and back off from thumping the Bible to solve every problem he and his characters create.This movie takes the cake for wasted potential. I have a solution that would have made the movie ten, even fifteen times more interesting, and it would be a very simple adjustment that would really challenge Tyler and make us understand him a little more (maybe?). He should have made the bad guy into the Devil himself. Not a quasi-Devil like he is portrayed.Old Stitch has been done in countless movies and television shows. Even now he has his own series. To play the Devil is one of the greatest roles you can do, and to the delight of the actor who gets to play him. I've never seen him done wrong—from Jeff Goldblum's MR. FROST to Al Pacino's ultimate lawyer (THE DEVIL'S ADVOCATE) all the way to Tim Curry's Prince of Darkness (LEGEND), there is just NO WRONG WAY to play the Devil.Instead, however, here all we have is a suave rich man doing all his smooth talking in between showing off his riches. And apparently riches are all you need to impress Judith, our main character. She doesn't really have a reason she's not getting along with her husband, who is an altogether happy-go-lucky kind of guy, he's just not rich.She's a marriage counselor, and this is my biggest complaint in the movie. Why do we make her a marriage counselor BEFORE she makes such a stupid and terrible mistake? Because I have to tell you—nobody in their right mind should go and seek out this woman for marital advice. This is a major rupture in the story, and it makes absolutely no sense… She is supposed to be a trained counselor in these matters. How could she be trained in knowing the patterns of marital infidelity and the counseling required to deal with it AND NOT BE ABLE TO SPOT IT HERSELF?Immediately a friend of mine shot back with, "Everybody makes mistakes." While this is true, you DO have to wonder how a marriage counselor could waltz right in and fall for this one. The only way that makes sense is if she is just not a very good one. I guess nobody she was counseling while all this was going on was having infidelity problems, which I suppose is technically possible, but is INCREDIBLY unlikely. Infidelity is the primary reason counseling is necessary in the first place.So you shouldn't make her a counselor off the bat, because she is obviously terrible at it. Wait until she's learned her lesson, then use that to solidify the end of the movie. Which is what Tyler does, albeit too late to really make a difference.And then we get to the AIDS part of the story. I'm not certain as to why it was necessary for Tyler to throw AIDS into this, as it turns out you could have delivered the exact same story without it and nothing would have changed. It's been suggested (more than once and very angrily too) that he is suggesting that AIDS is God's punishment for her infidelity, and why wouldn't they? There isn't a Tyler Perry production in existence, be it play or movie, that doesn't have the Almighty as a primary influence. This movie not only has the themes of it, it even shows a scene of conflict involving Judith's mother, trying desperately to pray away the demonic monster that has captured the soul of her daughter, to no avail. I guess the temptation was just too great.But to throw in AIDS the way he does truly DOES seem like he's saying it is God's punishment. I wonder, as I write this, considering how vehemently Tyler worships the Lord, what his stand on homosexuality is? I can't remember any gay characters in his work. I don't mean to draw any conclusions here, but it does make me wonder, and probably you too, if there isn't some kind of message he's trying to push here, again. One that might even be more suggestive than his usual, "Pray to God and He'll save the day" sermon.In short, if you lose the AIDS, if you make Judith a counselor-in-training, and if you make the heavy the ACTUAL Devil instead of this cheap knockoff version of one, you have yourself a much more interesting, much more powerful movie.Instead, what you have is just another Tyler Perry retread of the same old themes. People are imperfect. Temptation is everywhere. Be careful who you go to for marriage counseling. Prayer is the only way out.And for God's sake, make your man use condoms.

KMeister1 I found this movie to be very entertaining, with characters whose stories I found absorbing. Although certainly not an original story, the cast and director did a fine job moving it forward. The performances were solid--especially Ella Joyce as the main character's religious, moralistic mother. It's a combination soap opera and morality play: Happily married wife strays from loving husband with disastrous results. Several times in the film my wife and I shook our heads and said, "No she didn't!" There were more than a few surprises and twists to keep the viewer guessing.. It's one of those films that provoke discussion afterward. I confess I'm not a big Tyler Perry fan (hate his Medea movies) but this one is a winner.

MisterWhiplash Tyler Perry's Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor would barely pass the muster of a Lifetime movie of the week if it weren't for the first part of the title. Tyler Perry slaps his name on any given piece of garbage that's called a screenplay and it can get made - it helps, I suppose, that his movies are always made for peanuts, the kind of budgets that would make Woody Allen on his small-scale character pieces 'Wow, that's rough'. Perry may care and be passionate about his material (certainly he's passionate enough about Jesus and the church, not just here but in many of his films), but he has such a dearth of talent that it's nothing short of remarkable.His story here, good God, is about a 'good girl gone bad' scenario, which is framed by the sort of dramatic device which (um, spoiler sort of not really?) will involve the main character in some way, though we won't know how until the end. But here, it's about a woman who has a man, and she meets a rather "devilish" young gentleman (why do I even bother with quotes, HE'S THE DEVIL, PEOPLE!) who comes in to this firm as a new client or other. Well, who cares what he does really - matter of the situation is, he is rich, powerful, looks and acts like a playboy, and is a rotten person really.But why should the 'good girl' know about that, in such a cautionary tale? Wait, I'm sorry, 'cautionary'? That's not putting it correct - this is like a man holding up a hundred stop-lights that are flashing at a mile a second in front of your face. There are also attempts once or twice at humor - the kind of boring, awful sort of bits of comedy that are ill-timed and poorly thought out and acted. Wait, there's acting here? Some of them try, and no I don't mean to pick on Kim Kardashian, she's not even really the worst of it. What sucks is seeing someone like Smollett-Bell (at one time was the Eve in the underrated Eve's Bayou) or even Vanessa Williams not even try to rise above the dreck that is the script.Or maybe it's a combination platter of terrible. Certainly the dialog is laughably bad throughout, the kind that's usually either far far FAR too obvious, or over the top, or trying to be clever or poignant every-single-step-of-the-way, and ultimately no one is allowed to really be a person. Everyone's a sign-post, a marker, another piece of the MESSAGE (in caps) that Perry is trying to sling at the audience like a monkey throwing feces with a serious look on his face. It's hysterical filmmaking of a terrible order with its double-crosses, insane tonal shifts, and by the end it just leaves you completely drained and wondering 'what the HELL did I just watch?' In other words, The Room - Tommy Wiseau's magnum opus to himself and love and life - had more nuance than this rom-drama claptrap. It might not be so insulting as well if it didn't take things in drama that should or could or would be handled with care and vitality and depth - infidelity, sexuality, sexually transmitted disease - and bungle them, miserably.

jackfam58 This movie featured people who were basically social misfits. Judith was an accident waiting to happen. Her religious mother denied Judith a relationship with her father. Therefore she attached herself to the first man in her life, Brice. She expected him to be both husband and father. When Brice seemingly took her for granted she becomes confused. She was perfect prey for the con-artist Harley. We find out that Harley's mother left him in a crack house. Thus he never respected women. That's why he slept around giving women HIV. His riches provided him more access to new victims. Brice loved Judith enough to save her from Harley but it was too late. As a health care professional he know the risk of contracting HIV so he bounced. My only issue with the movie is it features a broken down Judith limping into the drugstore to face the same man who she betrayed. Most people living with HIV do not look run down and sickly. We have a 6'10 250 man who is one of the greatest basketball players ever. There are generations of people who do not even know he is HIV positive. But as a director, Tyler Perry is a very spiritual man. It comes out in all his movies. Jurnee Smollett made this movie worth watching. She is one of the most beautiful yet under rated actresses in Hollywood. I have watched this movie several times just to see her face.