For Colored Girls

Sa réalisation reste approximative tandis que de bonnes interprètes, en roue libre, soufflent le chaud et le froid.

Le fait d'avoir transposé l'action à notre époque n'arrange guère les choses puisque certains passages s'avèrent anachroniques, comme si Perry avait oublié de les dépoussiérer.

These characters, based on the original stage play by Ntozake Shange, represent a very real part of the female experience, and in the hands of this uniformly talented cast, they are well-realized people.

At its best moments For Colored Girls is subtle and incisive, though of course subtle is a relative term in Perry's world, and many smart moviegoers will be rightly appalled by the infanticide, the religious extremism (Goldberg's fanatic character never quite gels), even the depiction of nearly every man as a monster or monster-in-waiting.

Where Shange melded poetry, drama and dance to explore black female identity, Perry opts for strained soap opera. Nearly all his creative decisions go wrong.

Tyler Perry has been led out to critical slaughter so many times, it might seem a wonder that he continues to make movies. Except that Mr. Perry addresses his movies to black audiences and, until recently, has shown relatively little interest in crossing over. His enormous commercial success with a mainly black audience and the often ferociously hostile reviews from mostly white critics might seem symptomatic of an insurmountable racial divide.