Tyler Perry is here with another film that explores marriages and a woman’s fight to keep her life together. With a runtime of 143 minutes, the drama-thriller movie is a rollercoaster ride of emotions.
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Divorce in the Black Movie Cast
Meagan Good, Cory Hardrict, Joseph Lee Anderson, Shannon Wallace, Taylor Polidore, Richard Lawson, Debbi Morgan
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Divorce in the Black Writer & Director
Tyler Perry
After the disastrous funeral of Dallas’s brother, Ava is served with divorce papers that result in her breaking down and introspecting on the abusive marriage that she was so determined to save, in turn realising how her ex-husband resulted in her missing out on being with her soulmate.
Tyler Perry’s Mea Culpa was an enigma – it was boring and salacious at the same time, with a touch of disbelief mixed within. In that movie, too, the husband and his entire family were a band of Disney-level crooks and Divorce in the Black has something similar, just in a very different package. Focusing on domestic violence, the movie makes us fear for our protagonist Ava, whose love for her husband is eclipsed quickly by the rage of being abused over the years after one week at her parents’ house. Cory Hardrict is fantastic as Dallas – he sells this role and makes you hate him with everything you have got.
The problem here is that Dallas doesn’t have a backstory, he doesn’t have a good reason to be who he is although there are sparks of him having something in his past that makes him violent. However, we forget that part as soon as it’s told and, for some reason, we never revisit that again. This results in him being a half-baked antagonist, who is not a morally grey character – just another bad man who likes hurting his wife. Regardless, Hardrict is great in the role.
Our protagonist is Meagan Good’s Ava whose turn from a battered woman who can’t stop crying about her marriage to putting bullets into people’s bodies is extremely sudden and jarring. And sure, maybe it’s the help from the family, but the change is very odd, making us not believe in her progress since there is no nuance. Plus, it feels like Ava is constantly suffering from delusions – at first thinking that she can make her marriage work with an abuser and then in her ability to fend this hateful man off in any way without any sort of assistance. I mean, let us be realistic here – no amount of fiery speeches is going to stop this man from throttling you.
It’s these sequences that make you dislike this woman thoroughly. Being unrealistic helps no one and thankfully, her parents are more balanced than their daughter. Richard Lawson as Clarence is delightful as Ava’s father who immediately brings out the big guns when his daughter’s life is in danger. Taylor Polidore as Rona is great as well and discusses getting a restraining order to keep Dallas at bay somehow – how they get it within a day is lost on me but that’s a different discussion altogether.
The inconsistencies and downright unrealistic moments are what keeps Divorce in the Black from being a gritty and relatable thriller and a cautionary tale for women to think about their safety first. The plot is very convenient and half-baked and although there are genuine moments where you will be fearful for Ava’s safety, she just takes her monster of a husband so casually that you want to scream at her. Plus, the movie also doesn’t do anything new with the topic and feels happy in the safety of a generic story that sometimes feels like it’s taking advantage of a dire situation.
Divorce in the Black Review: Final Thoughts
This movie is sometimes emotional but thoroughly convenient and half-baked. It does make an impact sometimes but in others feels like it’s happy to be unexplorative and generic. Although the performances are great and Meagan Good makes us emotionally connect to her character, as a whole, it fails to make an impact.
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