E-Mail This Article to a Friend DIARY OF A MAD BLACK WOMAN

Kimberly Elise is the title character in Darren Grant’s by-the-numbers tale of a woman dumped by her rich husband (Steve Harris) on their 20th anniversary so he can marry her best friend. Starting over with nothing, Helen has to rebuild her life — which proves remarkably easy after she moves into her grandmother’s house and meets good guy Orlando (played with boring adequacy by Shemar Moore). Although Diary pretends to be about the devastation and anger of a failed marriage, Grant keeps everything on the surface, never allowing Helen to dig into the emotions she claims to feel. Tyler Perry, whose play the film is based on, provides stereotypical comic relief in drag as grandma Madea, whose antics place her under house arrest for much of the film, to the audience’s benefit, since house arrest tends to limit one’s screen time. Nothing feels true, from the shallow gold-digging mistress to the tacked-on resolution in which everything works out for everyone. Don’t think I’m giving anything away: you’ll be able to predict the ending five minutes in. By the time things finally wrapped up, I was mad too.