Limerculer A waste of 90 minutes of my life

Aedonerre I gave this film a 9 out of 10, because it was exactly what I expected it to be.

FrogGlace In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

Phillida Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Ali Catterall Today's Thought For The Day comes from Dallas-based Pentacostal preacher TD Jakes, author of such titles as 'Women, Thou Art Loosed' and 'The Lady, Her Lover And Her Lord'. Not Easily Broken is adapted from Jakes' novel about a couple working their way through marital strife. It is unspeakably naff, unintentionally funny and unapologetically Christian. Judged on its own terms, it's a resounding success. But for non-believers it will likely prove a living purgatory.The title is taken from the Old Testament (you were expecting the Bhagavad Gita?) and refers to the sturdy three-stranded cord of marriage, with one cord representing the women, the other the man and the third, You Know Who. The knot can be undone, of course, but it is not easily broken - hey! (Although most marriages are probably more like a round turn and two half hitches.) Ten years into marriage, the cord of African-American couple Dave (Morris Chestnut) and Clarice (Taraji P Henson) has begun to fray. She's an estate agent; he's a little league coach. He wants kids; she wants to delay having children to climb the career ladder. They're pulling in different directions. Then bad stuff happens. You know something grim is coming up, because during their wedding flashback Bishop Wilkes (Albert Hall) warns them, "Life is going to try and knock you down." Nice one mate. Another slice of cake? After a car crash leaves Clarice's legs mangled, her harpie mother (Jenifer Lewis) blames Dave for the accident and moves in to help look after her - driving Dave into the arms of Julie (Maeve Quinlan), his wife's physiotherapist and a single mom. A white single mom. You know the kind of white Heinrich Himmler had in mind when he started that whole Lebensborn programme? Like that.However, as this is a spiritually-minded drama nearly entirely devoid of the sort of racial tension Hollywood pounces on given the slightest opportunity, the real issue here is Julie's single mom-ness. Because that kid is like catnip to a wannabe dad. Can the marriage survive all these outside influences? The stage is set for a shakedown between the meddling mother-in-law from hell and Our Father who art in Heaven."Do not make me go all Oprah on you" Clarice's girlfriend chides her at one point. It's too late for that. This is cornier than Kellogg's and soapier than a Persil factory. Problems include clunking plot devices (Dave's dilemma is pretty much wrapped up in one fell stroke by permanently removing Julie's 'little problem') and dialogue that makes you want to hack your ears off ("Do you know what I'm thinking? I'm thinking we need to get back to the loving part of our marriage"). Meanwhile, all our sympathies are unfairly weighted in Dave's camp as Clarice and her mum are almost completely unlikable shrews.It also endorses a strain of Christian conservatism that some may find disgusting, summed up in a central, self-pitying lecture that suggests, essentially, that the emancipation of women gave rise to generations of feeble, hinge-wristed men who, in neglecting their God-appointed roles as workers, cultivators and protectors, "turned the whole world upside down." Poor old Dave.Taking potshots is futile, really. This will find its audience no matter what. And they may take some comfort in its simplistic, optimistic messages of prayer and forgiveness amid an angry, uncertain world. Unrepentant heretics can amuse themselves pointing out the unwittingly lewd dialogue, such as Chestnut innocently recalling of their honeymoon, "We didn't come up for air for two days"; or laughing at the terrible, terrible MOR soul Dave listens to when he wants to retreat from his woes. The credits music, incidentally, features a prime example of Christian rap - exposure to which may convince you, without a shadow of a doubt, that the devil really does have all the best tunes.

dbborroughs Ten years into a marriage a couple finds itself floundering. She is an up and coming Real estate star and he is a former athlete who has his own business. As she becomes more successful he begins a drift towards an affair.Good little drama is solid entertainment. Better than many recent films of a similar sort this works because the characters are real people thanks to a very good cast and some good writing that allows the cast to do something other than be just props to be moved around.While it may not win any awards and is more than likely to get lost on the DVD shelves of Blockbuster this film is worth a look.

kbatts It's discouraging to see people down-rate any movie which has a Christian side to it. There are plenty of movies without this aspect; I don't see why the few with positive messages should bother anyone. Since we do have a spiritual component to our lives, I'm glad when I can have a movie such as this for our weekly "family night." This movie portrayed real life situations and made for great conversation afterward.I really enjoyed these actors and want to find their other works. I thought the emotions shown in the many heavy situations were very well done.The stories themselves were very good, and as I said, pertinent to real life. I have my own family, and have seen these struggles in our own families and in our friends'.I've never read any books by T.D. Jakes, but after seeing this, I'll go look for some of his books.

#44 While the film was engaging on many levels, I kept wondering what was not sitting right with me. The more I thought about it, I realized that the male lead in this film was painted as a long-suffering, perfect mate while his wife was the nagging, negligent, career driven failure. The turning point in the film and their marriage was when the female lead approached her husband and apologized for the failures in their marriage. While she had a lot to be sorry for, I've never seen such a one sided marriage in real life. Really, couldn't there be ONE thing the husband could be working on in the marriage? It's VERY unrealistic for such perfection in a human being. I say all this to say that this is what happens when a "female" driven drama (b/c that's the audience this film is hoping will show up) is produced, written, directed, shot and edited by men. Not that men couldn't not do a good job, but this is clearly an example where there was no female input to add balance to the story. On so many levels, it's very unrealistic if not just downright disturbing.