By Galadriel Barrett-Laffan

In recent years Tyler Perry has proved himself to be a bit of a modern day renaissance man.  Since his debut film Diary of a Mad Black Women premiered eight years ago Perry has written, directed, produced and acted in more than 18 films, plays and television series.  His work, while often critically panned, is consistently financially successful and he has become one of the most popular and profitable African American filmmakers of all time.  There is little doubt that his latest film, For Colored Girls, a star-studded piece that is ultimately flawed, will also be a box office success.

The film is based on For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf, which was written by Ntozake Shange in 1974 and has been through many incarnations including a hit Broadway play, a book, a TV movie and now a film.  It was originally comprised of 20 poems each spoken by a different woman and each addressing a serious issue, such as rape, abuse or abortion.  Perry weaves these poems into the story of seven modern women: a nurse, a high powered executive and her assistant, a high school senior and her dance teacher, a landlady and her adversarial tenant.  As their lives intertwine they find themselves dealing with these same issues.  In an attempt to make the material feel current Perry also tackles war induced post-traumatic stress disorder, men living on the “down-low” and STDs.

The problem is that the prose does not feel modern at all.  Each of the film’s leads, a stunning group which includes Janet Jackson, Phylicia Rashad, Whoopi Goldberg and Loretta Devine, speak one of Shange’s poems during the course of the film.  The words seem to come from a different time and place and serve to pull the viewer out of the action and away from the emotions of the characters.  Perhaps because they are so rooted in the theatre, the series of soliloquies come off as stilted and stagey.  Only a couple of the leads, specifically Thandie Newton and Kimberly Elise, are able to find the humanity in the words and make them feel like they are part of the film’s reality.

Another problem with For Colored Girls is that there is simply too much going on.  The viewer is asked to follow the lives of seven main characters, as well as a host of supporting players, and with all of the issues addressed in the film there is very little time left for any real character development.  The viewer is left feeling like they almost got to know these characters but not quite.  The unfortunate result is that the challenges faced by these women have no real resonance.  We aren’t really given the opportunity to know these people so it becomes very difficult to care for them.  There are moments of great power, with one scene in particular that left me shocked and breathless, but the film quickly moves on to the next event, rushing to squeeze it all in before the credits roll.

There are some great things about For Colored Girls, namely its impressive cast, and it has very important things to say about issues, new and old, facing our society.   But ultimately it tries to do too much, to say too much and the result leaves the viewer, ironically, wanting more.