Diary of a Mad Black Woman

This outrageously schizophrenic soap-opera, comedy, drama, religious tract, social commentary and more is a messy, potholed revelation. Tyler Perry adapts his own popular play into a rambling, softly bawdy mosaic of African-American life in which love, heartbreak, betrayal, revenge, greed, redemption, family dynamics and the words of Jesus all coalesce into something gloriously flawed but nonetheless magnetic. When middle-aged Helen (Kimberly Elise) is given the matrimonial boot from her affluent attorney husband (Steve Harris) after 18 years of marriage, she moves in with her sassy, robust, gun-toting grandmother (played by Perry himself) and learns how to survive on her very own terms but not without several missteps.