The film "Diary of a Mad Black Woman" is emotionally intense from the start: It turns a woman's eighteenth-wedding anniversary into a jarring and painful nightmare. Yet the film's heavy content gives way to an offbeat romantic comedy as new characters show the "mad" woman how to let love back into her life.
On the evening of Helen McCarter's (Kimberly Elise) wedding anniversary, she comes home to find that her husband Charlie (Steve Harris) has hired a man to pack her belongings into a U-Haul truck. Helen soon learns that Charlie wants to end their marriage to live with his mistress and their two children. When Helen resists, Charlie literally throws her out of their house in a physical scene that is extremely painful to watch.
Helen has no choice but to ride in the truck with the hired truck driver, Orlando (Shemar Moore), until she can think of a place to go. After an argument about the selfishness of men, she abandons him in the road and drives the U-haul to her grandmother Madea's house.
Madea (one of three characters played by male playwright Tyler Perry) reveals herself as the comic relief in an otherwise heavy plot. Madea provides strength as well as humor to the story from the very moment she greets Helen at the door with a gun in her hand.
Madea also teaches Helen how to get in touch with her anger. In a hilarious scene at the McCarter house, Madea takes a chainsaw from out of nowhere and starts cutting all the furniture in two to prove her point that Charlie owes Helen at least half of everything.
The movie is not, however, all about exacting revenge. "Diary" also manages to delve into the serious issues of abuse, trust and even drugs. Helen's cousin Brian (Tyler Perry) shares part of the story as he decides whether to let his drug-addict wife back into their home despite his damaged trust in her.
Helen also must learn to trust again as she tries to heal from the abuse she endured during her marriage. Orlando quickly establishes himself as the "knight in shining armor" who appears to make everything better for Helen. Helen makes it clear that she does not believe in fairytales, but the love story that develops between them is really just that. Orlando is a slightly unrealistic character who uses clichéd lines such as, "Don't make me pay for his mistakes." The film clearly portrays Orlando as the soft, fantasy counterpart to Charlie.
Although the audience might roll their eyes when they hear Orlando say, "I can love you past your pain," these lines enhance the experience of "Diary" as not just a downer, but a romantic film. Helen also struggles against taking revenge on her ex-husband when a surprising twist of events forces her to take care of him.
Helen eventually does show that she is the "mad black woman" when she sails into a rampage and dominates the relationship with Charlie for the first time ever in a scene that uses a bathtub as a weapon.
Despite a focus on revenge, the film manages to present forgiveness as an effective way to deal with the characters' struggles. Forgiveness in some relationships, however, is more believable than in others. Characters like Charlie were too underdeveloped to garner much forgiveness or sympathy. More situations where their thoughts and feelings were brought to the forefront would have helped the audience accept the movie's forgiveness theme.
Ultimately, the film is uplifting: Characters deal with their demons and struggles are resolved -- not bad for a movie that started out heavy and depressing.
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