Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns Review
With Meet the Browns, Tyler Perry has made another reasonably heartfelt examination of some aspect of the modern African-American condition -- in this case, single motherhood -- while goosing it with just enough laughter so it's not too heavy. Angela Bassett, as the mother in question, brings immense value to any film in which she appears, and basketball player Rick Fox, as her love interest, proves he has nuanced enough chops to avoid being just a pretty face. Perry actually dials back some of his usual proselytizing, as God makes only a token appearance in this film. Instead, his primary agenda is to extol the virtues of family, both immediate and extended, in creating the kind of mutual support network that allows people to grow and flourish. (And if he happens to think the essence of family is found not in big-city Chicago, but in rural Georgia, well then, that's just keeping with another career-long agenda.)
Despite the things Meet the Browns does right, one of its missteps can't help but seem glaring. Perry's trademark has been the incorporation of his gun-wielding grandma, Madea, into his stories, regardless of whether that makes narrative sense. Here, it's utterly senseless. For no good reason, except maybe so she can appear in the movie's trailers, Madea makes an unwelcome third-act appearance that involves a high-speed police chase, with her brother Joe (also played by Perry) riding shotgun. The scene lasts five minutes and has nothing to do with either the events that came before or the events that follow. It doesn't kill the movie, but it does make one wish Perry had just been satisfied with the comic relief he already had on hand: David Mann and Jennifer Lewis, who are each hilarious in different ways, playing the half-siblings Bassett's character never knew she had. Derek Armstrong, Rovi
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