Somehow bypassing a Promise Keepers’ weekend marriage encounter and going directly into mainstream theaters, “Not Easily Broken” takes a moralistic view of relationship problems by suggesting that everything will be fixed if the wife spends less time in the office and more time having children. This may well be the first film ever made about the male biological clock.
His dreams of a pro baseball career shattered like the bones in one of his legs, Dave Johnson (Morris Chestnut) drives his hard-working realtor wife Clarice (Taraji P. Henson) up the wall by spending much of his free time coaching Little League. Whenever he brings up having children, she reminds him that it’s her job — and not his work as a contractor — that’s paying for their McMansion.
A car accident that leaves Clarice unable to walk brings two big changes into this couple’s life. One is the appearance of Clarice’s shrewish mother Mary (Jenifer Lewis), who moves into their home and makes an already tense situation that much worse.
The accident also introduces them to Julie (Maeve Quinlan), a physical therapist and single mom. Julie’s able to get Clarice up and mobile again, but her friendship with Dave — initially over his bonding with her pre-teen son — threatens to spark into something else at any moment.
Cue the tragedy, the tears and the life lessons — this is a movie based on a T.D. Jakes novel, which essentially means it’s a Tyler Perry film without the bad drag or overdone slapstick. If screenwriter Brian Bird had made Dave anything less than a paragon, then there might be some actual drama here; as it is, we’re all basically just waiting for Clarice to admit that she’s wrong about everything and that she’s ready to become the baby factory that Dave and, apparently, the good Lord want her to be.
What makes “Not Easily Broken” a cut above is director Bill Duke, whose 1992 cop drama “Deep Cover” remains one of the great undiscovered American cult films. This time around, he wisely uses voice-over for much of the film’s speechifying — in Bird’s script, when people talk about God or marriage or parenthood, they Talk. About. It. Subtext is for wimps, or at least for better writers.
Duke also casts terrific performers — the cast also includes Eddie Cibrian, Kevin Hart and Niecy Nash — and makes them shine even when the characterizations are thin and the dialogue clunky. Quinlan comes off like one of the most realistic single moms I’ve seen in a movie in ages; she’s sexy enough to be a threat to Clarice, but she defies the usual movie logic by not looking like a 23-year-old woman who somehow has a 12-year-old son.
The best part of “Not Easily Broken” is Lewis, giving a scorching performance that saves Mary from being a stereotypical, Wilma-Flintstone’s-mother kind of nag. Lewis has played a lot of mouthy church ladies in comedies of late (“Meet the Browns” and “First Sunday,” among others), but this time she gets to express the rage and bitterness at the core of this kind of self-righteous character, and it’s something to behold. I’ll remember her ferocity long after I’ve forgotten everything else about this movie.