Many parents have a roadmap for their children. Every parent knows what is best for their child and how they need to live their lives. They live each day optimistically, seeing their children achieve these amazing futures - education, marriage, having children, successful careers et al. Some parents push their children to be mini-replicas of their “perfect” lives.
How far do parents go with control of these dreams or plans? How much time is spent encouraging children to carve the lives they want for themselves - positively, of course?
Wesley Deeds (Tyler Perry) lives his life as expected, being controlled - doing everything just right for those around him. He is the perfect son, perfect fiancée, perfect brother, perfect CEO, perfect employer, perfect gentleman - he is exactly what others want him to be. Has he lived ANY second of his life the way he sees best for him?
When Lindsey Wakefield (Thandie Newton), a cleaner at his company, abruptly enters his usual circle with her baggage and drama … AND has the nerve to challenge him about his “perfection”, he starts assessing his choices and personal dreams.
Within the first seven minutes of the movie, you know what will happen in the last six minutes of the movie - you have seen it over and over and over and over in every Cinderella-like love story. None, or optimistically some, of the parts in the movie do not happen in the “real” world, especially the one we live in - a CEO who has a different view on a cleaner.
If it does, it is not spoken of in a positive light; it is gossiped about and attacked. Opinionated people have a deadline on when the “more successful and wealthy person will change their minds about how they see this lowly person”. Those that assume they have and can “control” these people’s lives are focused on getting “the dirt” out of their “controlled and wonderful” spaces.
Natalie and Wesley Love or hate Tyler Perry, he tells his stories in ways that some people can relate to and feel educated by - without the lecture, stories that some live or see in others or themselves, stories that make people take charge of their lives, and he does make some people pay for movies.
He may not bring heart-wrenching movies like “For Colored Girls” or hilarious and outrageous ones like the Madea movies for each playscreen he writes BUT he makes certain his stories have lessons for those whom love his work. And those audiences that love Tyler Perry ALWAYS appreciate this.
You can’t ignore the calibre of stars that also take the opportunities to be in his movies, and they unquestionably push themselves in their performances. Thandie Newton and Brian White (as Wesley’s troubled and bitter brother, Walter Deeds) are worthy of a mention in this film.
They perform their roles in a poignant and tear-jerking way so that the audience can understand and feel every emotion expressed by the character. You can’t help but feel the compassion towards these characters, as their lives keep spiralling out of control and into more pain. Their needs to have the world look at them with eyes of support and encouragement is a far cry from what they are getting which is pity and results of bad-decisions.
Walter and Wesley Being a hopeless romantic (and a HUGE Tyler Perry fan), I will go watch this movie a couple of times to escape reality of how our “real” world is not tuned in to people’s lives. To learn the lessons hidden in the storyline - what challenges face other people as they trudge through life and how do others perceive these people that have “perfect” lives?
What beauty is there that is unappreciated in your life? What are you doing to sabotage yourself whilst holding someone else accountable for the demise of your life? What silver spoon are you waiting for to take care of all your needs - and it has already been handed over to someone else?
The courage to do and be what we know is right for our lives is within us. Sometimes we only realize this when someone sparks the fire to take a closer look at our lives. Sometimes all we need is a chance encounter, a good deed to make or carve the defining choices about our lives for us to reach a state of happiness and peace.
As Tyler Perry profoundly states in the trailer: “When it comes down to it, life isn’t about how much we get, it’s about how much we share”. I give the movie 3.5/5 Segs stars due to the “low budget” feel I had about it.
Lindsey and Ariel The movie opens at Ster-kinekor theaters on the 30th March 2012.
website:
http://www.gooddeedsmovie.com/ Director: Tyler Perry (Also Writer, Producer)
Tagline: Wesley Deeds is About to Discover the Person He Was Meant to Be.
Censorship: Rated PG-13 for sexual content, language, some violence and thematic material
Movie length: 111 minutes
IMDB Score: 3.3/10
Genre: Romance, Drama