Review: ‘Tyler Perry A Madea Christmas’ is all wrapping and no gift
As pop singers eventually make holiday albums, it was bound to happen that Tyler Perry would bring his cornerstone character of Madea to Christmas sooner or later. An adaptation of his own stage play, “Tyler Perry’s A Madea Christmas” winds up the same slapdash, lightweight effort as Madea in any other season, with a few Yuletide flourishes.
As usual, Perry has created a casual mix of easy comedy with a touch of dramatic filigree. Here he is refreshingly lighter with his typically heavy-handed moral lessons, which also makes the film feel even flimsier than some other Madea outings. Perry can now knock these films out in his sleep, and with “Madea Christmas” he certainly seems to be dozing at the wheel.
What’s most odd about the film is how not Christmas-y it often is, as if Perry was bringing together a patchwork of ideas under the cover of a holiday story rather than crafting one from whole cloth. That being said, a high point is Madea’s garbled riff on the Nativity story to a group of schoolkids — in her version singer Mary J. Blige and “True Blood” actor Joe Manganiello can’t get into a Ritz Carlton or a Motel 6 and so have their baby on the street thanks to a mangy talking dog.
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In the film, which was not screened in advance for critics, Perry’s Madea is traveling with her adult niece, Eileen (Anna Maria Horsford), from Atlanta to rural Alabama for a surprise Christmas visit with Eileen’s daughter, Lacey (Tika Sumpter), who has secretly gotten married to Conner (Eric Lively, Blake’s brother). With the arrival of his parents (played by Kathy Najimy and a briefly, boldly shirtless Larry the Cable Guy), a hasty subterfuge brings out long-simmering prejudices from Eileen.
The cast is rounded out by Alicia Witt, Chad Michael Murray and former “Facts of Life” star Lisa Whelchel. For good measure there is a brief cameo by Antoine Dodson, he of “hide your kids, hide your wife” viral notoriety and listed in the credits as “YouTube Guy.”
Perry’s scratchpad variety-show attitude toward storytelling means that even when he lands on an interesting idea he just as quickly leaves it. At one point Madea is directed to a small building for a roadside bathroom break and finds a roomful of people in the robes and hoods of the Klu Klux Klan. (Because of course behind every closed door in Alabama is a full-dress Klan meeting.) Madea exits, there is a sparkling holiday-themed transitional wipe across the screen and that’s the end of it.
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Perry stumbles onto perhaps the most radical and daring image he has ever created — two caricatures confronting one another — and physically runs from it. Just imagine what Lee Daniels would do with the idea of Madea and the Klan: He’d make it the whole rest of the movie.
Other points are also teased and cast aside before the film wraps up in a hasty rush that doesn’t even make much sense, with a few pronouncements, a couple of hugs, a Christmas song and on to the gag reel at the credits. No new Christmas classic here, just something familiar for the holidays for those with the mildest of expectations.
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‘Tyler Perry’s A Madea Christmas’
Rating: PG-13 for sexual references, crude humor and language
Running time: 1 hour, 45 minutes
Playing: In wide release
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