The Family That Preys movie review

THE FAMILY THAT PREYS MOVIE REVIEW

The Family That Preys the movie is a good movie. I enjoy Tyler Perry movies a lot and recently watched The Family That Preys movie.

• In The Family That Preys the movie, the movie actress, Alfre Woodard does a phenomenal job playing movie character Alice, a religious mother and grandmother that wants the best for her family.
• Actress Kathy Bates also gives a great performance in The Family That Preys the movie as Alice's friend, Charlotte Cartwright.

In The Family That Preys the movie, the unlikely pair of close friends, Alice and Charlotte, met thirty years prior when Charlotte, a multimillionaire was trying to assist her husband and business partner in getting Alice to sell her property as part of a new development. Alice would not budge. Charlotte appreciates Alice's passion and they remain friends ever since.

In the next thirty years of The Family That Preys movie timeline, these two friends Alice and Charlotte are always there for each other and well, with one of them being so wealthy and the other not, sometimes elaborate gifts were given by the former to the latter.

One of those gifts was a beautiful wedding ceremony for Alices's daughter, Andrea, played by actress Sanaa Lathan in the movie.

As evidenced in my other film reviews, I, like most moviegoers, really appreciate when an actor can show such a great range of ability.

In The Family That Preys movie, Sanaa Lathan convincingly plays Andrea, a very selfish and deviant character in a role that we are not used to seeing her play as we remember her from films such as Love and Basketball.

In The Family That Preys movie, the character Alice is so happy to be seeing her daughter Andrea getting married and so thankful to her friend Charlotte for funding the beautiful wedding, but Andrea is bitter. Immediately we see red flags.

• In The Family That Preys the movie, the character Andrea is whining about everything.
• Andrea does not like her wedding dress (which had once been Alice's wedding dress).
• In the movie, the character Andrea tells her sister Pam played by Taraji P. Henson (who also showed us an actor's great range in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) that their mother is acting like a "mammie" by taking handouts from Charlotte.
• Pam rolls her eyes and says that Andrea is so disrespectful and had better not embarrass their mom.

In THE FAMILY THAT PREYS the movie, the disrespect continues and escalates, as four years later Andrea is cheating on her husband, Chris (played by Rockmond Dunbar) with Charlotte's son, William Cartwright (played by Cole Hauser).

In The Family That Preys the movie, not only does Andrea have no regard for her wedding vows but she accepts lavish monetary gifts from William to the point where she soon has over $270,000 in a separate bank account unbeknownst to her husband.

The character, Chris in The Family That Preys movie, is a loving and doting man who is trying his best for his family.

1. Although Chris does not know that Andrea is cheating until later, he does realize that she does not respect him.
2. While Andrea works in the corporate office closely alongside William, her husband, Chris works for the same company in construction.
3. In the movie, when Chris tries to share his ideas with Andrea about starting his own construction company, she says that he will never be William.
4. When Chris suggests that Andrea's close (working) relationship with William might be used as leverage to set up a meeting for Chris, Andrea says that William "does not see [have meetings with] construction workers".

In THE FAMILY THAT PREYS the movie, the character Chris is still hopeful with his ideas and shares them with Pam's husband, Ben who is a character in the movie that is played by Tyler Perry himself.

• Chris is hoping that Ben will be his partner in his efforts.
• Ben is very reluctant but goes to a bank with Chris to request a loan.
• Chris and Ben get turned away, told that what they are requesting is "impossible".
• Dejected, Chris goes to the teller to request just $40 from his account when he learns about the other account ($270,000) his wife is secretly keeping.
• He is utterly shocked and does not mention it to Ben until later when they are back at work.

In The Family That Preys the movie, Chris begs Ben not to mention anything to Pam because he does not want it to get back to Andrea. He wants to confront Andrea himself. He is still very naive about how his wife got the money even though her salary is just 65,000 a year.

• Andrea says that she got the money legitimately from bonuses and turns the accusing tone on him saying that it is her money and he should mind his business.
• Chris tries to believe Andrea but is confused and hurt by her reaction.
• Andrea says once again that Chris will never be William, who is charming, smart, rich, etc. implying that Chris is not any of those things.

When Andrea finally admits that the money is a gift from William, also married, and with whom she is having an affair, everything hits the fan. Chris is a doting, gentle, and loving husband no more but a man scorned and chaos ensues.

Alice is very saddened by what develops in her daughter's marriage while in a parallel event she also learns that her great friend, Charlotte is succumbing to Alzheimers disease.

It is while on a wonderful life changing trip cross country with Charlotte to see sights such as the Grand Canyon that Alice learns of her friend's failing health. A fun time on the trip is overshadowed by sadness.

This story like many of Tyler Perry's movies is about love, friendship, family, heartache and mending.

The Family that Preys the movie does not have as many comedic moments as most of Tyler Perry's other work but it has all the life lessons.

This movie also features one of the great songs by Lee Ann Womack: I Hope You Dance.

The Family That Preys

I rate it 3.5/5
Rated: PG-13
Written and Directed by: Tyler Perry
Produced by: Tyler Perry, Roger M. Bobb and others
Distributed by: Lionsgate
Starring: Alfre Woodard, Kathy Bates, Sanaa Lathan, Cole Hauser, Taraji P. Henson, Rockmond Dunbar, Tyler Perry, Robin Givens, Kadee Strickland and others
Running Time: 111 minutes