There are many great plays which when translated to the big screen prove to be just as successful as their theatre counterparts. With good casting and a solid adherence to the original plot, many stage-to-screen adaptations hit the mark and leave you wanting more. Diary of a Mad Black Woman, however, just plain sucks. (This does contain spoilers, but if the first sentence didn't warn you…read on.)

Directed by Darren Grant and produced by Reuben Cannon (of such hits as Johnson Family Vacation, Love Don't Cost a Thing and Undisputed), this tour de farce starts in the soap opera life of Charles (Steve Harris) and Helen (Kimberly Elise), a seemingly loving couple who secretly have a life of lies, distrust and unhappiness. In the first fifteen minutes, they go from husband and wife to have-a-nice-life as Charles springs his mistress Debrah (Tamara Taylor) on Helen, telling her to get out of the house. She meets up with Orlando (Shemar Moore) a steelworker/U-Haul driver whom Helen unleashes her anger upon, throws out of a moving truck and then eventually ends up at the home of her grandmother Madea (Tyler Perry).

First fifteen minutes, y'all. And it doesn't stop there.

The entire film is a ghastly mishmash of chitlin'-circuit style comedy, heavy Christian undertones and "all men are dogs" treatises. Adding insult to injury are the annoyingly Ally McBealish Dear Diary voiceovers, as if we don't have to be reminded that lo! — this is a diary of a mad Black woman. Acting as the glue to hold together these elements are Perry's characters Madea, Joe (Madea's brother) and Brian (Madea's son). The character's themselves behave as if they're just wasting time until the scenes end. At one point, Helen is sitting in a four-star restaurant watching loving couples and sobbing as she drinks wine and searches the want ads.

Subplots come out of absolutely nowhere as Cannon tries to stretch a 45 minute predictable storyline into a 2-hour gagfest. Aside from the main Helen-gets-her-groove-back theme, Brian has an on-again, off-again relationship with his well-kept crackhead wife as his kids become distant from him, and there's a "villain" from Charles's past who is after him for a "Not Guilty" court verdict which, after a very predictable court shooting, leaves Charles confined to a wheelchair, his mistress gone, and Helen feeling obligated to care for him even though she's now fallen for Orlando (like you didn't see that one coming). However, there is one gem in the film when Helen's rage reaches a head and she finally lashes out at her oppresive husband. Think Kathy Bates and James Caan in Misery, but not so bloody.

Speaking of the film allusions, in the last thirty minutes, I'm guessing the producer and director said "to hell with it" and threw in as many movie rips as they could so everyone could have a happy ending. It starts with a The Color Purple church redemption scene (Charles can walk! Helen can love! Brian's crackhead wife is reformed! The power of gospel music…unleashed!) which leads into a Soul Food type family gathering and then ends with the ending scene from An Officer and a Gentleman, where Helen agrees to marry Orlando by regurgitating the same lines he fed her 45 minutes ago.

In the end, this film is so bad, it's actually gets good, passes it completely, then comes full circle right back to bad. Now unless you're a diehard fan of all things Tyler Perry, then the obvious suck factor of this movie is as easy to discern as 6′+ Black man dressed in a gray wig, glasses and a bad dress. But when you boil it down to its basic parts, the message is simple: learn to forgive and live on faith. It is, after all, a love story. Just don't go expecting Love Jones…it's more like Love Jesus.

Grade: D-

Additional reviews
Metacritic
Entertainment Weekly
The New York Times
IMDB Message Boards