Fans of playwright Tyler Perry see him as a machine of a man, having penned numerous beloved stage productions that dared to bring relevant issues to the surface for examination. But for someone like me, Perry comes across as one of the most egotistical people on the planet, a man who plasters his name on his projects wherever it'll fit. Madea's Family Reunion, the follow-up to Perry's Diary of a Mad Black Woman, will surely entertain his many fans -- but, for the rest of us cynics, it's just more of his manipulative corn.  

Although this film is titled Madea's Family Reunion, the reunion itself takes up only a 15-minute chunk of the movie. Most of the story revolves around Madea (played by Perry, in drag so unconvincing it makes Big Momma's House 2 look like Tootsie), the by-proxy matriarch of a close-knit Georgia clan, and the family troubles that occur all around her. One niece (Rochelle Aytes) is trapped in an engagement to a fiance (Blair Underwood) who beats her, but she's too afraid to leave, fearing not only his backlash but also that of her domineering mother (Lynn Whitfield). Meanwhile, another downtrodden niece finds love in the form of a kindly bus driver (Boris Kodjoe), a juvenile delinquent (Keke Palmer) ends up in Madea's custody, and on top of all that, the big family reunion is coming up, a celebration Madea and others hope will help heal both old and new family wounds.

There's nothing wrong with the message Perry wants to convey through his plays and, now, his screenplays. But there are more than a few flaws with his execution, which is what transforms Madea's Family Reunion from a potentially bittersweet portrait of a family trying to hold onto its ties amid rough patches into a clunky dramedy. I believe that a number of folks admire Perry for the morals he delivers, looking past the hokey package and appreciating the contents. If this is the case, then Perry's fans must be one forgiving bunch, because his tactless storytelling hinders the emotional impact Madea's Family Reunion could have achieved. It's the sort of movie where a scene in which one character beats another character and threatens her with death is followed by a flatulence joke, a story that wants to incite laughs and tears from the viewers but has no clue about how to structure them. Dramatically simplistic, the plot amounts to little more than a series of crises with subplots that aren't so much resolved but that just drop dead from boredom. 

The actors and their characters boil down to one-note personalities given a single function with the story. Perry attempts to beef up the drama by tackling some tough topics  (rape, incest, spousal abuse), but such efforts come across like situations airlifted from a soap opera, adding only more awkwardness to a plot trying to get you to laugh at the same time. 

Granted, cast members make some valiant efforts to rise above the material here, including a nice cameo from Maya Angelou and a touching monologue from Cicely Tyson that  cuts through the story's cookie-cutter routine with a good message. But, like Diary, Madea's Family Reunion seems unable to blend its comedic and dramatic sides into a cohesive whole. With Perry's name attached to the production company, director's credit, writer's credit, and first three billing slots, he has no one to blame for this but himself.

MY RATING: * 1/2 (out of ****)

(Released by Lions Gate Films and rated "PG-13" for mature thematic elements, domestic violence, sex and drug references.)