Is Tyler Perry's New Movie for 'Colored Girls'? Or for Everyone?

It's taken me a while (OK, about a week) to write this. Because I needed some time and even more space away from my own mad emotions and rabid sense of entitlement. Last Saturday, a good friend and I went to see Tyler Perry's adaptation of Ntozake Shange's seminal work, "For Colored Girls Who've Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf." I feel as if I've been talking about this movie forever, although all of my rants have been in my own mind. Because I had no words but venom from the start. But after about a week that venom has fermented into something a bit sweeter.

For those unfamiliar with it, Shange's original work is a collection of interconnecting poems, later performed by women who were dressed in and referred to as primary colors. The poems are about young love, rape, abortion, being tired of "sorry" and finally getting to your "own rainbow."

Tyler Perry cross-dressed his way into mainstream hearts as "Madea," the gun-toting grandmother who made a pot of hots grits famous, just five years ago in "Diary of a Mad Black Woman." See, I actually liked that movie. Despite being more than a touch melodramatic, all in all, "Diary" was balanced, properly edited and oftentimes funny. It explored "the why" behind the angry single black lady conundrum so many credible news outlets seem to be obsessed with.

But since then the filmmaker has done very little exercising creatively. His artistic muscles, in my humble opinion, have all but atrophied. With movies like "Meet the Browns" and "Why Did I Get Married Too," Perry seemed to be saying "neener neener neener" to the Hollywood establishment, which for those films is probably a good thing. He can write a script on a plane ride, cast it on the taxi home and have audiences in the seats the following weekend. "For Colored Girls" needs a lighter touch, which is why some women were upset to learn that Perry would be directing the film instead of Nzingha Stewart, who Lionsgate originally tapped to head the project.

So, I was biased before the previews started. And the next 120 minutes didn't help much. What irked me most about Perry's "For Colored Girls" were all the seams. I've watched "Project Runway" enough to know that the mark of a true master is smooth, even, like buttah tailoring. Perry is all thumbs in that department. Cutting a horrific rape scene with scenes from an opera did nothing but give the teenagers (and grownups) behind me the "church giggles." The men in the film took up empty, stereotypical space that should've been dedicated to actual character development for its female cast. And giving actress Janet Jackson "a cough" plus a "down low" husband is an easy recipe for HIV an audience can see from outer space. The dominoes that fall do so clumsily throughout the film, which is based on a "choreopoem," which to me means fluidity. I could go on. And I did in several conversations about the movie after I'd seen it.

"So it wasn't like the book?' asked a friend this week after I'd stepped down from my "Why Did I See This Movie?" soap box. I didn't know how to tell her that there is probably no way for any adaption to be like the book. Although I still expected (and lovers of Shange's work deserved) more. My friend, who has yet to read "For Colored Girls," loved the film. And so did my mother, who is planning to take the teenagers in her literacy program to go see it and have a deep discussion afterward. When I asked her why, she said, "It's heavy but they need to see it." The film is heavy and I'm hoping that after people see it they'll find the strength to pick up Ntozake Shange's original play and really learn something. If "For Colored Girls" can do that, then I guess Tyler Perry has done his job.