Meet the Browns

An American family film. Brenda is raising three children alone in Chicago. She works at a factory; the factory closes and she looks for work. The power is about to be cut and the rent is late. A letter arrives: the father she never knew has died and the funeral is in Georgia. She takes the children and drives. What she finds is not what she expected: a crowded, loud family at each other's throats. Nobody is attending to grief; everyone is talking, joking and cooking. From there the film runs two lines together. One is Brenda meeting this family and finding a place in it; the other is her eldest son's situation in Chicago and a way out that basketball might open. What the narrative is interested in is not inheritance but connection: Brenda has thought all her life that she had nobody, and suddenly learns she has a crowded family. The tone moves constantly between comedy and melodrama; the film does that deliberately and overplays both sides. Angela Bassett plays Brenda. Rick Fox, Lance Gross, Margaret Avery and Sofía Vergara are in the cast. The director appears in the film as the character he created, Madea. Tyler Perry wrote and directed; the source is his own stage play. Who it is for: anyone who likes Tyler Perry's films and family comedy. Who it is not for: anyone looking for restraint; the emotional turns are very abrupt and the humour comes straight from the stage.