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TYLER PERRY’S WHY DID I GET MARRIED?

"Getting Marriage Counseling through God and One Another"

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What You Need To Know:

TYLER PERRY’S WHY DID I GET MARRIED? is a comedy melodrama about four married couples who reunite in the snowcapped mountains of Colorado for their annual marriage retreat. They are led by Patricia, a psychologist and best-selling author. The couples get several surprises during their stay. Patricia and her husband, Gavin, share secret grief over a terrible tragedy that they have been failing to face. Angela and Marcus argue constantly, and Marcus has a medical secret that could finally ruin their marriage. Meanwhile, Mike, a philandering husband, constantly berates his wife Sheila, a sweet faithful Christian with weight issues. Finally, Terry is getting fed up with his wife Dianne’s absorption in her legal career.

WHY DID I GET MARRIED? is an unabashed soap opera, but it has some very funny moments to go along with its well-directed, and well-acted, drama. The movie has a solid Christian worldview, but there is enough foul language and frank sexual references to make it unsuitable for those under 17. That’s not the targeted audience for this movie anyway, however. In the end, the movie extols marriage, love, commitment, prayer, and depending on God.

Content:

(CC, BB, FR, H, LLL, V, S, N, AA, M) Strong Christian worldview with strong moral premise and elements including positive mentions of Jesus, God and prayer, mitigated by some antinomian permissiveness regarding language, including a few frank sexual references and jokes (not salaciously crude), plus some light references to psychology but religion and moral thinking resolve most of the conflicts, though Christianity and the Bible could and should have been even more central to the story (for example, a psychologist advocates marriage retreats for couples where couples ask themselves Why Did I Get Married? but her concept of retreats is a general one that’s not centered on Jesus, God and the Bible as a church retreat on marriage probably would be); about 54 obscenities (mostly “h” and the “a” words, some “d” words, and one “f” word seems cut off or edited out but may be a blip during the projection of the screening MOVIEGUIDE® saw), one strong profanity and six light exclamatory profanities; man knocked out with bottle; implied adultery and talk about it, woman is clearly attracted to man who is wearing a T-shirt while working on something, and discussion about getting a sexually transmitted disease and needing medicine (most of it discussed euphemistically); brief upper male nudity and some female cleavage; alcohol use and slight drunkenness; no smoking; and, some miscellaneous immorality such as cheating, lying, deceit, and philandering husband is extremely rude to his wife including her weight, but most if not all of the miscellaneous immorality is rebuked in some way or fashion.

More Detail:

TYLER PERRY’S WHY DID I GET MARRIED? is an unabashed soap opera, but it has some very funny moments to go along with its well-directed, and well-acted, melodrama. The movie also has a solid Christian worldview, but there is enough foul language and frank sexual references to make it unsuitable for those under 17 or 18.

Directed by Tyler Perry, who also stars, the movie is a big-screen adaptation of Perry’s successful stage play of the same title. It is about the difficulties of maintaining a solid marriage in modern times.

The story is about four married couples who reunite in the snowcapped mountains of Colorado for their annual marriage retreat together. They are led by Patricia, a popular psychologist and best-selling author. The couples get several surprises along the way. Patricia and her husband, Gavin, share secret grief over a terrible tragedy that they have been refusing to fully face. Angela and Marcus argue constantly, and Marcus has a medical secret that could finally break up their marriage. Meanwhile, Mike, a philandering husband, constantly berates his wife Sheila, a sweet faithful Christian with weight issues. Finally, Terry is getting fed up with his wife Dianne’s total absorption in her legal career.

WHY DID I GET MARRIED? is Tyler Perry’s best movie to date. He even shows some considerable acting chops in this sometimes funny melodrama. The rest of the cast does a fine job, especially singer Jill Scott as Sheila, the character suffering the most visible emotional pain in this piece.

Like Tyler Perry’s other movies, WHY DID I GET MARRIED? contains a strong Christian worldview with a strong moral outlook. These positive qualities are diminished by lots of PG-13 foul language and some sexual references, including references to having a sexually transmitted disease. This content, and the movie’s mature themes, require extreme caution, especially to those who are sensitive about such matters.

One point should be discussed in relation to this particular movie. Patricia, the psychologist in the story, advocates marriage retreats for couples where couples ask themselves “Why Did I Get Married?,” but her concept of retreats is a general one that’s not centered on Jesus, God and the Bible as a church retreat on marriage probably would be. Church retreats for married couples are a great idea that MOVIEGUIDE® supports, but such retreats should focus first and foremost on our personal relationship with Jesus Christ, who is God in the Flesh. They should also focus on explicit biblical principles that the retreat leaders and the couples can glean from God’s Word.