For Colored Girls

Writer/director Tyler Perry is probably used to taking heat from the critics for his films, but he can rest knowing that his latest movie For Colored Girls... is his best film yet. Even though that might not be attributed to his direction or writing.

Excruciating when it's bad, which is far too often, but a brave failure in lots of ways.

Perry crafts poorly paced soap opera, playing out in the most obvious and crass manner possible the situations that the poems subtly dance around. Shange's original text...

Tyler Perry's drama is beautifully acted but Ntozake Shange's multiple, interlocking narratives ultimately defy his efforts to bring them to the screen.

Perry has assembled a formidable ensemble, including Loretta Devine, Kimberly Elise, Thandie Newton, Anika Noni Rose, Tessa Thompson, Kerry Washington, Whoopi Goldberg, Janet Jackson, Phylicia Rashad and, in the most searing cameo, Macy Gray.

Where Perry soars is in his longstanding willingness to jump fully into issues.

A lovely and moving film, at once Perry's most dynamic and his most subtle work.

And yet the film remains strangely watchable, even when it's gone bonkers. Especially when it's gone bonkers.

"For Colored Girls" features a lot of heartache and pain, but lacks any sense of purpose. It sacrifices depth for despair and suffers because of it.