It's pretty much what you expect. A reasonably trashy romantic thriller in which the characters do terrible things to each other but look gorgeous anyway.
Melinda Gayle (Taraji P Henson) is having a restraining order placed upon her. As she is forced to speak with a therapist, she tells her story of love and loss in voiceover through the remainder of the film. That is, the whole film, since this was the first scene.
It's actually not even a great story. She fell in love with a hot young man whose dreams of success become manifest in a self-sustaining battery he hopes to sell. She supports him financially, emotionally, sexually, and every other -ly for most of their lives and most of the movie, even though he is caught time and again in lying and cheating and all but stealing her inheritance, her earnings, her sanity. The story is infuriating, and you just get tired of people being stupid and ugly to each other.
At least, that's how we're meant to take it. About 2/3 of the way through, though, I began to have my doubts, and this is where the film gets really weird. Her ex-husband now, Robert (Lyriq Bent) finds success after meeting up with an old flame, Diana (Crystle Stewart), and selling his fancy battery. He magnanimously gives Melinda flowers and her old house and a check for $10 million. And it's at this point that she snaps and goes full Fatal Attraction on his ass. The last, I don't know, 20 minutes or less of the film consist of her sneaking about Robert's pearly-white yacht and attempting to butcher him and Diana.
But these final moments of full-blown crazy aren't enough to steal the film. Henson is in only half the movie, and while she acts the pants off everyone else, she can't quite overcome the deeply problematic script. Problematic, I should say, because whether this is Fatal Attraction 2.0 or not, the treatment of this woman is downright cruel, if she is indeed suffering from mental illness, as multiple characters in the film suggest. Similarly, director Tyler Perry, though allowing for some emotional intelligence in storytelling and some fine damn cinematography, cannot make the film rise above the mess of other -- better -- films in its genre. I love me some Taraji P, but for now, I'll stick with her on Empire and wait for a better script and director to revive the psycho-ex-lover thriller.
IMDb: Acrimony
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