My Movie Review: The Family that Preys

So I checked out the new Tyler Perry movie, The Family that Preys, with some friends last week. It stars Sanaa Lathan (Love & Basketball, Out of Time)famthatpreys as a newlywed and new accountant in a successful construction company owned by Oscar-winning actress Kathy Bates (Misery, Waterboy) and run by her son Cole Hauser (Higher Learning, Good Will Hunting, 2 Fast 2 Furious).

I knew this movie had to be good considering the star-studded cast which also includes Alfre Woodard (Desperate Housewives, Something New) as Sanaa's mother, Robin [where the heck has she been] Givens (Boomerang, The Women of Brewster Place), and the absolutely scene-stealing Tariji P. Henson (Talk to Me, Baby Boy) who plays Sanaa's sister. The movie starts out with Andrea (played by Sanaa) getting married in her mom's friend's mansion (played by Kathy Bates). Despite Sanaa being apprehensive about accepting handouts from the notoriously rich Cartwright family, she doesn't seem to mind accepting a job at their company. Shoot to a couple years later...and the drama begins.

Sanaa is an accountant in the Cartwright construction company. The dreams of wedded bliss Sanaa's husband (played by Rockmond Dunbar) is expecting are disappearing day by day. Rockmond begins to uncover lies about his wife and marriage while persistently trying to start his own construction company with friend Ben (played by Tyler Perry).

But there's also another side story in the movie: An ageless, true friendship between a modest, sweet, God-fearing, diner owner Alice Pratt (Alfre Woodard) and the rich, dominating, and outspoken Charlotte Cartwright (Kathy Bates). And while at first glance these two women don't even look like they would sit next to each other on a bus (or in Mrs. Cartwright's limo), the movie is great at revealing why they are friends.

This is an overall different type of movie than we would expect from Tyler Perry. I have to say that while I truly love and respect Tyler Perry's accomplishments, I am not one of those people on that TP bandwagon who loves anything he does. But I enjoyed this movie. While having a pretty good idea of the plot of the movie, Perry did a nice job of keeping me on my toes from one scene to the next. It is obvious that this multi-talented director is just beginning to show us what he can do. I only hope that this movie (while I already know it is) isn't labeled as a Black movie. The characters, stories, and conflict expressed relates to all individuals.

My vote: Two Thumbs Up
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