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Diary of a Mad Black Woman
I went to see Diary of a Mad Black Woman which was a deeply Christian film. I
wouldn’t have gotten that impression from any of the critics. It wasn’t real
smoothly done, and I cringed at some things that the film seems to approve of.
But on the whole, it was a memorable taste of African-American Christianity.
The heroine, played by Kimberly
Elise, is treated very badly by her lawyer husband, kicked out of the house
with nothing, watching her rival displace her. She is of course mad at the
world, finds it difficult to trust anybody, especially men. But a man enters
her life, a man who is so absolutely perfect that I cringed; but perhaps, on
reflection, he is a Christ figure. He woos her with complete gentleness and
understanding, and when they begin kissing and lying down together, there is no
sex, only “intimacy.” At this point, she renounces her old life, allows her
husband to take everything in the divorce settlement.
But then the husband is paralyzed
by one of his clients, and the heroine goes back to him, torments him a bit
(after his girlfriend has left him), but eventually nurtures him back to
health. There’s a remarkable scene at a church service at which the husband
puts his crutches down and another subplot is resolved. Everybody sings praise
to Jesus, then goes to Grandma’s for dinner. (Grandma is a comic character,
played by director Tyler Perry in drag.) Then the heroine presents divorce
papers to her husband and runs to rejoin the Christ-figure suitor.
To a Christian, there should be problems with the film’s attitude toward divorce, and to some of the language. But the Lord’s name is used very often, not in vain. Everyone in the film (except the profane Grandma and her brother) profess to be Christians, and eventually everybody is reconciled as much as one can imagine.