Why Did I Get Married Too? (2010)

While I enjoyed Tyler Perry's "Why Did I Get Married?" more than most of his films, the movie's sequel, WHY DID I GET MARRIED TOO?, goes completely off the rails. Who is Tyler Perry making movies for at this point? It's hard to say. But I have deduced so far that he's not directing for people who are looking for realism or subtlety in their domestic dramas.

Gathering as they did before for an annual couples retreat, four women (Janet Jackson, Jill Scott, Sharon Leal and Tasha Smith)and their henpecked husbands (so interchangeable that their names barely matter) head to a Bahamas beach house instead of the Colorado resort they last visited. On their last trip, the behind-the-bedroom-doors drama began to unravel as cabin fever set in. But this time, the drama is on before the couples board the plane to head south.

Loudmouth alcoholic Angela (Smith) is now completely unreasonable. Her husband, Marcus, finally has a steady job, and she's jealous. Not to mention that her lack of trust in Marcus is oppressive and ridiculous. So much so, in fact, that her once funny boozy one-liners now grow tired within minutes, and Perry is not capable of establishing any reasonable justification for why Marcus would stay with this women (or why the others would tolerate her presence). We are only told, over and over (in case we forget), that Marcus loves her. Not good enough. She's ridiculous.

The reverse suspicions are at work in the marriage between Dianne (Leal) and Terry (Perry), the latter of whom becomes increasingly paranoid of his wife's fidelity as the film goes on. This is probably because every couple in a Tyler Perry movie must have an affair or, at the least, credible if ultimately misleading evidence of one. What Perry avoids completely is a couple that actually loves and trusts each other.

Not that he doesn't make an attempt. Though WHY DID I GET MARRIED TOO? is the furthest thing from a "grounded" movie, one memorable scene involves guest performances by Louis Gossett, Jr. and Cicely Tyson as a vacationing couple married for over 50 years. Their exchanges demonstrate the petty nagging that comes with time, but also a sweet devotion and stability that the others lack. This moment, however, is soon eclipsed by the greatest drama of all, which occurs when Patricia (Jackson) announces that she and her husband Gavin are divorcing.

Janet's performance in the final third of the film is probably the most memorable thing about this movie, though it's hard to watch without remembering that she filmed these emotional scenes just after her brother Michael had died and was clearly tapping into some raw emotion. All ugly-faced and makeup-less, Jackson wails and growls and, at one point, takes a golf club to the couple's glass-filled living room. It's a moment of power gone awry by Perry's lack of control.

Even the film's most interesting subplot derails in this sequel, as the once beaten-down Sheila (Scott) finds a second chance at love with Troy at the end of the first film after escaping her abusive husband, Mike. Quite amazingly, in the most ridiculous way, Mike shows up at the beach house to make everyone's lives more miserable, which is almost impossible to do with these already miserable couples. It's proof that Perry didn't believe there was enough drama in his script, so he had to bring Mike back in. And while Mike does get involved in an interesting part of the sub-plot, it's not justification enough.

The original "Why Did I Get Married?" blended some genuinely funny moments with Perry's flair for cheating-spouse dramatics, but I laughed maybe twice through this sequel, and rolled my eyes so frequently that I'm wearing my glasses instead of contact lenses today. None of the couples manage to provide a good reason why they got married by the end. And now I'm stuck explaining why I watched the movie.

1.5 out of 4