Tyler Perry’s Good Deeds represents a triad of firsts for me. It is the first Tyler Perry movie I have seen. It is the first time I have intentionally planned to see two separate movies on their opening nights, sequentially. And it is the first time I have stayed up until midnight to see the movie and write the review.
I saw the trailer for this movie when I went to see Red Tails in January, and I was intrigued. I’ve been eagerly anticipating opening night ever since. And talking it up until my family are sick of it.
I wasn’t disappointed. But first, a word of warning. Surprisingly, Good Deeds is not what I would call a family film. I’m not sure I’m going to take my teenage boys to see it — although the great lessons may win out over the questionable scenes in the end. Parents should be aware that there is a good bit of vulgar language, especially in the first half of the film, and that there are both frank discussions of sexuality and a couple of rather intense lovemaking scenes that may not be suitable for younger children. The main character is living with his fiancee, and there is clearly some pre-marital sexual behaviour going on, which may be a negative factor for some of my readers.
That said, Good Deeds is a great story. The basic story is that Wesley Deeds grew up with a silver spoon in his mouth and has the perfect life. Only Wesley isn’t really sure it’s his life, though he has buried these insecurities so deep that he isn’t really aware of them anymore. His fiancee finds him predictable, to the point that she even knows exactly what he’s about to say. Lindsey Wakefield, on the other hand, is living in a nightmare that is slowly getting worse. Her husband was killed while on military deployment, and she had to quit nursing school to get a job and care for her daughter. She is barely making ends meet, and from the first moment that we meet her, we see just how precarious her situation is. And it just keeps unraveling.
Lindsey works as a janitor in the building that Wesley’s company owns. They meet under less than ideal circumstances, and Wesley’s alcoholic brother, Walter, behaves like a lout. We see from the beginning that Wesley has a good heart, but that figuring out the right thing to do can take him some time. Wesley and Lindsey keep running into each other, but he doesn’t make a significant move to help her until the day he witnesses her child being torn from her arms by a social worker. In the process of helping Lindsey, Wesley not only falls in love, but finds spontaneity and rediscovers his childhood dreams.
The story rings almost true. I’d like to believe that there is a corporate CEO out there would would tolerate the kind of attitude that Lindsey displays — I haven’t met one yet, but maybe. And some of the scenes are a little predictable — I saw the ending coming from the minute Wesley told Lindsey goodbye. In a way, that’s why Good Deeds is a good film, and should be a successful one. Like any fairy tale, there is just enough fantasy about it to keep us with one foot firmly planted in reality, while the rest is realistic enough that we can look wistfully on, thinking that it would be very nice if things did work just that way.
***** SPOILER WARNING *****
The lessons in this movie are myriad and well-told. Among them:
- Wesley’s parting words to his brother should go down in movie lore with Rhett Butler’s “Frankly, my dear….” They are that true, that moving, that pointed. And the lesson in them is just as important. If more people told the perpetual victims around them that they are sabotaging themselves (when it’s true), we might have a lot fewer perpetual victims clogging up the works for those who truly need help.
- Wesley and Natalie’s discussion when they realize that they don’t actually love each other and need to rethink their engagement is an amazingly mature, calm, and rational discussion for two people who are contemplating not only the dissolution of their own relationship, but the disappointment of both of their mothers, and the knowledge that the engagement reception is the next day and it’s going to be pretty awkward to announce that there’s not really anything to have a reception for.
- I found it inspiring to watch Lindsey’s moral bearing when Wesley tells her that he is engaged, and her refusal to become physically involved with him until he knows what he really wants and until he is no longer bound to someone else.
- Lindsey’s continual challenge to Wesley to not judge her until he had a firm grip on “the real world” speaks volumes. And so does Lindsey’s realization that Wesley isn’t the cold, heartless jerk that she initially thought him to be. A man who has no children shouldn’t judge the actions of a woman who is doing her best to provide for her child. A man who has no idea how much a gallon of milk costs shouldn’t judge a person who is sleeping in her car because she lost her apartment. My real world and someone else’s may be poles apart — each of us needs to stop and think before we judge the other.
I enjoyed Good Deeds. I might even go see it again. But I will take a box of tissues with me if I do. The napkins from the concession stand are rather harsh on tearful eyes.