Tyler Perry clumsily returns to form Little tempting in ‘Temptation’

March 30, 2013 at 12:00a.m.

McClatchy-Tribune News Service

The thing that made Tyler Perry rich is much in evidence in “Tyler Perry’s Temptation.” It was called “Confessions of a Marriage Counselor” when he toured with it on stage.

There’s no Madea here. But the women are beautiful, serious about clothes, makeup, hair and church.

Older women are “Wise Councils,” the name of a female-centric church in the movie. And they typically get all the funny, sometimes profane, always “you-listen-to-me-child” lines.

The men are shirtless, rapacious heels, or sensitive pretty- boy disappointments. That doesn’t matter, as these movies are first and foremost “chick flicks”

The women, I mean.

But “Temptation” is a cautionary tale about wanting what you haven’t got. The marriage counselor Judith (Jurnee Smollett-Bell) at the heart of it is young, gorgeous, in a glamorous job with a high-end D.C. dating service.

And the Internet tycoon who may invest in the marriage counselor’s business? He (Robbie Jones) has money, confidence and “unsafe sex” written all over it. Meanwhile, the husband might be tempted by a secretive and cowering new cashier (Brandy Norwood) at his pharmacy,

Ella Joyce, as Judith’s preacher-mother, and has the “Madea” role - sassy, testy and all-wise.

Perry clumsily frames this story as a tale a counselor (Candice Coke) tells a young woman who’s thinking of cheating on her husband. The timing of the comic moments is off, and the film drags and drags before reaching a conclusion anybody can see from a mile off.

The quartet of leads is blander than bland. The “Temptation” of the title is a come-on and a false promise. How “tempting” can a movie about cheating be with a PG-13 rating?

Casting Norwood, a vapid Kim Kardashian as a shallow, judgmental colleague in the dating service, and Vanessa Williams as the boss of that service suggests that Perry is drawn to women who have been media (and man) victims, from time to time.

But the filmmaker has points to make, about wealth and the allure of the new.

“There’s nothing wrong with being rich and having nice things — so long as the nice things don’t own YOU.”

“We become a lot of different people before we settle into who we are.”

With homilies like that, I expected Perry to get into the talk show/ advice game, until Steve Harvey leaped at that. But cranking out two formulaic movies like this a year shows the Atlanta mogul’s true ambition — replacing all those soap operas TV is canceling, two hours at a time.