Tyler Perry’s Divorce in the Black (2024) review

Dir. Tyler Perry

By: Steve Pulaski

Rating: ★★

Since opting to release his films on streaming services following A Madea Family Funeral, Tyler Perry’s latest works have gone on to be almost too easy to miss, even for their target audiences, who I assume already had a tough time keeping up with his many shows in addition. Divorce in the Black marks his fifth feature for a streamer (the first for Amazon Prime Video), and each one feels less and less noticed. But when the fourth installment of a popular 1980s comedy series starring one of the biggest names in comedy fades from public consciousness not even two full weeks after its release, should we be surprised when a filmmaker’s prolific output is rewarded with obscurity?

Divorce in the Black is Perry’s second film in five months, the first being the dreadful Mea Culpa. Even as consistently inconsistent as he is when dressing up as the vulgar, gun-totin’ granny Madea, his output is mired with more misses than hits. However, when he ditches the Madea character all together, and opts for a more serious story, all bets are off. We might get Acrimony, we might get Temptation. The fun is in pressing play.

Divorce in the Black revolves around Ava, played valiantly albeit unremarkably by Meagan Good. Ava was brought up the southern belle way, with a preacher father in Clarence (Richard Lawson) and a doting mother in Gene (Debbi Morgan). The two have never approved of her marriage to Dallas (Cory Hardrict), an abusive man from a violent family. The film opens with the funeral of Dallas’ brother. In quite possibly the wildest and most ridiculous opener Perry has ever written, Linda (Ursula O. Robinson), Dallas’ mother, loses her cool at Clarence for his condemnation of her late son, and tries to preserve the family name in an instant by urging her surviving sons to carry the corpse of their brother out of the funeral home.

Shortly thereafter, Dallas, who is drunk, high, or some combination of the two in every scene, demands a divorce. It shouldn’t be, but it’s one of the funniest scenes in the film. Dallas does so by publicly making a scene whilst on a double date with Ava and their mutual friends. He’s loud and intoxicated, and what Taraji P. Henson’s character Melinda in Acrimony might call, “a maggot motherfucker of a man.”

Ava is forced to pick up the pieces of her shattered life. She moves back in with her parents. She rekindles with an old friend, played by the handsome Joseph Lee Anderson. You know where this is going. There’s not many surprises along the way. No less, Perry believed this story deserved a two-hour runtime, and it’s often an endurance test that feels like a first draft adapted through the process of shooting the rehearsal scenes.

Divorce in the Black manages to muster something of a spark when Cory Hardrict’s Dallas is on screen. Naturally, however, that character turns up too infrequently to be one of Perry’s more memorable individuals. Later in the film, once the divorce is finalized, Dallas decides he wants Ava back. From there, in every appearance, Perry treats Dallas like the killer in a slasher movie, foreshadowing his imminent appearance with doomy music and uneasy energy. Another standout scene comes when Dallas accosts and assaults Gene in a grocery store. If Perry’s latest should get credit for anything, it’s how several scenes, namely featuring arguments or violence, manage to go just a few steps further than you think they will in such a brazen attempt for drama.

Similar to Adam Sandler’s Netflix output over the last 10 (!) years, some of Perry’s worst movies have been relegated to streaming. But also some of his better efforts. You might not believe me, but A Madea Homecoming is one of the funnier Madea films. A Jazzman’s Blues, a period piece, might indeed be the most accomplished film Perry ever directed, and I hold out hope that one of the reasons Divorce in the Black is shoddy is because the embattled-yet-enormously-successful filmmaker was busy giving similar care and attention to an upcoming World War II flick about a battalion made up of Black women. One can hope at least. That “one” being myself. When a man has watched an upwards of 20 Tyler Perry movies by his own doing over the last 15 years, he must justify his masochism.

NOTE: I spoke to actor Cory Hardrict in advance of Tyler Perry’s Divorce in the Black. We chatted about his experience working with Perry, as well as Clint Eastwood, and what it takes to be a working actor. Take a listen to the interview below:

Starring: Meagan Good, Cory Hardrict, Joseph Lee Anderson, Richard Lawson, Debbi Morgan, Taylor Polidore, Shannon Wallace, and Ursula O. Robinson. Directed by: Tyler Perry.