Just when we think we know what to expect from Tyler Perry’s unique style of drama, he delivers a scene so wildly over the top, we don’t know where he goes from here. In his new Prime Video film, “Divorce in the Black,” instead of starting with a low key moment that sets up the story, he opens the movie with what may be the most memorable funeral scene in cinema history.
The film follows Meagan Good’s Ava as she ends her toxic marriage to Cory Hardrict’s Dallas, a deeply troubled man from a violent family. While that might seem like a simple plot, the actual movie is much more melodramatic than that. As Dallas spirals further out of control, things get increasingly crazy. Just so it’s clear, Good and Hardrict deliver compelling, captivating performances, grounding the nonsense in Ava and Dallas’ flawed relationship.
While critics hate the film, calling it Perry’s worst, audiences who enjoy his brand of chaos or enjoy laughing at how absurd and silly it all is, are loving it. It currently has a critics rating of zero percent on Rotten Tomatoes, but it has an audience score of 70 percent.
We start this craziness at the funeral for Dallas’ brother. The pastor, who also happens to be Ava’s father, basically says he was so evil, he’s going to hell. As you would imagine, this doesn’t go over well with Dallas’ mother, who reads the pastor and the congregation for disrespecting her family. As Ava’s mother tries to intervene, this woman is having none of it, declares she doesn’t need their charity and takes off the donated church clothes she’s wearing.
(Oh, did I tell you there will be spoilers?) From there, things get even more wild when she demands that her sons get their brother’s body and carry it out of the church. And she doesn’t mean the casket! So they take him out of the casket, bring him to their truck and drive off with the body as the rest of the church screams at this ridiculous display.
Even by Tyler Perry standards this was A LOT, and Black Twitter definitely had thoughts on how this all went down.
One person noted the scene’s unforgettable nature, writing on X, “Babyyyyy! This funeral scene will go down in history! This is crazy. Tyler Perry outdid himself with the drama.”
Another viewer pointed out how the filmmaker didn’t make audiences wait long for the drama, posting, “I’m not even ten minutes into the film, but Tyler Perry’s Divorce in the Black has one the craziest openings I have seen in one of his movies.”
The over the top scene led someone else to turn the Madea performer’s name into a verb, writing on X, “Literally 5 minutes into Tyler Perry movie Divorce In The Black seeing them folks take the body out the coffin at a funeral in church… like who on earth thinks of that… every time I try to give Tyler Perry another chance… he Tyler Perry’s it every time.”
Meanwhile, another person signaled that this scene will become legendary, posting, “Had to watch #DivorceInTheBlack again… the church scene takes me out every single time.”
“Imagine if @tylerperry had got @therealmoworldwide for this scene . She would’ve killed this character. Great scene,” posted a viewer who noted that Dallas’ mother seemed very similar to Mo’Nique, who Perry has famously feuded with for 15 years.
“Divorce in the Black” is now streaming on Prime Video.