Pick of the Week: Madea's Big Happy Family

By Horacio Garcia

Every few years (or months if the TV shows are not producing enough money) Tyler Perry dresses himself in drag and becomes a big black lady with sparkling eyes, weight lifter muscles and the sharp tongue of Oprah’s character in the Color Purple. Madea’s Big Happy Family is a rehash of most of Perry’s favorite subjects with a more sitcom-like quality than usual.

There is no doubt that Tyler is the golden boy of black comedy. Even before Diary of a Mad Black Woman hit the screen, he has written, directed, produced, acted and marketed 11 successful movies, a whole lot of stage plays, a couple of sitcoms and countless songs.

He even appeared in Star Trek (playing the commander of the Fleet’s Academy), an honor coveted by many. In any case, during the last decade Tyler has managed to become the biggest African American media star eclipsing household names like Chris Rock and Martin Lawrence.

Tyler’s secret is of course no secret; he works like a law intern (that is, like a slave) and has the widest arrange of talents necessary for show business, but even more importantly, he’s got a natural sense for tackling hairy subjects with humor and courage. Is not easy to handle death, marriage, family relations, drug trafficking, jail and The Almighty all in one package, but that is what Madea’s Big Happy Family is all about.

The Plot: Shirley and Aunt Bam go to visit Dr. Evans, he tells her she has cancer. Shirley tells him it will be alright because she believes in God and has lived a good life.

We have to remember that Madea’s relatives are as dysfunctional as any normal American family, so it's natural that Leroy Brown, who’s in the hospital for a prostate exam, also thinks he's dying.

From that point and on, the movie splits between the drama of Shirley’s sickness and her struggle to break the news to her self-centered troublesome children and Brown's tragicomedy of mistaken death.

What works well in this new Madea adventure? Well, Tyler playing Madea, of course, because Tyler, unlike Eddie Murphy or Martin Lawrence, does not play a caricature of an old black lady: he plays an actual black lady. Tyler barely disguises his voice and the makeup doesn’t try to hide the fact that he is a guy. Madea is in a sense Tyler’s feminine voice more than the voice of a woman he’s playing.

The other thing that is really good about Madea’s Big Happy Family is David Mann. Sometimes you forget how funny David is and how well he plays that Brown character But of course that is also part of Tyler’s genius; Leroy Brown is one of his oldest stage characters and to date accumulates a fictional life spanning a couple of plays, a mayor movie and a television franchise.

Even though this  is not at the same level as the first Madea movie, the new addition in the series is outrageous, funny and thoughtful.

If you are a Perry fan, Madea latest installment will make you happy and if you are not, give it a try anyway; Tyler is one of the few directors in Hollywood that can make you laugh and cry at the same time, and that is a rare talent.

Tags Cine Pick of the Week, David Mann, Madea's Big Happy Family, Tyler Perry