A Madea Homecoming

The latest title from Tyler Perry's very black comedy collection promises to be another hit for Netflix.

Drag and race: Tyler Perry and Brendan O’Carroll

I am afraid that the extraordinary success story that is Tyler Perry had so far eluded me until I watched this, the latest in his Madea series. Actually, it is not the latest because A Jazzman's Blues – which he wrote, produced and directed – is to be released by Netflix later in the year, and Don't Look Up, in which he appears as talk show host Jack Bremmer, has been Oscar-nominated for best picture. In 2021 he was honoured at the Oscars with the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, while the previous year he and The Perry Foundation were bestowed with the Governors’ Award at the Emmys. Perry appears to have done everything, acting (he played Colin Powell in Vice), writing, producing and directing for theatre, film and television and he now has his own Tyler Perry Studios, one of the largest in the US, located in Atlanta on the site of a former military base. And to cap it all, he has written books too. Clever guy, or what?

Much of Tyler's writing concerns the problems that dysfunctional families have to undergo, such as marriage, sex, child abuse, religion, dignity, social behaviour, money, drugs, poverty and just relationships in general. In many of his plays and films these themes are dealt with with the seriousness they deserve. However, in the Madea movies the problems are covered in mockingly comedic ways which nevertheless get the messages across, albeit wrapped up in frantic and devious political non-correctness. Madea (which may be a misprint for Medea) is actually Mabel 'Madea' Earlene Simmons, a character played by Tyler Perry himself, a mean old African-American widow woman with attitude. She has attitudes about everything and if things are not going to order, she will pull out a gun and start shooting. Living with her is her brother Joe (also and amazingly played by Perry), who is a cardboard cut-out version of his sister.

Perry originally created these and other members of Madea's family for a series of stage plays, eleven of which have been filmed over the last decade. A Madea Homecoming (the latest and possibly the last in the series) is all about a family celebration to mark the arrival of Tim Brown (Brandon Black), Mabel 'Madea' Simmons' great-grandson as he has just graduated from college. He is accompanied by Davi (Isha Blaaker), his university 'roommate', who is actually his partner, about which he is struggling to come out to his family. It is not surprising because his relations are a weird but wonderful lot, so it’s an uphill struggle. There's Uncle Joe, who has an opinion on everything including the probable relationship between the two boys. Then there's Aunt Bam (Cassi Davis Patton) who makes a play for Davi, and Tim's mother Laura (Gabrielle Dennis) who is hiding a secret from her son, plus various other crew members of the family to smear an already fairly greasy p(l)ot.

Just as I was thinking who do these characters remind me of – Eddie Murphy as the Klumps in The Nutty Professor series, or Barry Humphries' Dame Edna Everage or Brendan O'Carroll as Mrs Agnes Brown and her boys? – when who should appear but Mrs Brown herself, come over from Ireland for the festivities. The star of the BBC sitcom is apparently Davi's aunt. Still, it adds another layer of fun to the proceedings, so there are now two men in drag playing miserable old women. And so it goes... the plot gets more overloaded with incident but for me, coming new to the Madea genre, I cannot deny that I found it all very entertaining. Admittedly it's rude, it's crude and it's so over the top, but hidden inside the non-PC action is a small nugget of truth about families and their relationships. Either way, you have been warned.

MICHAEL DARVELL

Cast: Tyler Perry, Cassi Davis Patton, David Mann, Tamela Mann, Gabrielle Dennis, Brendan O'Carroll, Jennifer Gibney, Brandon Black, Isha Blaaker, Candace Maxwell, Amani Atkinson. 

Dir Tyler Perry, Pro Will Ateu and Mark Swinton, Screenplay Tyler Perry, Ph Taylor Randall, Pro Des Sharon Busse, Ed Larry Sexton, Music Philip White, Costumes D. Lucky Henry and Chanique Quinones. 

Tyler Perry Studios-Netflix.
106 mins. USA. 2022. Rel: 25 February 2022. Cert. 15.