Nobody's Fool

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Danica (played by Tika Sumpter) is a success-driven woman that is conned by her mother, Lola (played by Whoopi Goldberg) to pick up her sister Tanya (played by Tiffany Haddish) when she gets out of jail. Once Tonya finds out Danica has an online boyfriend she has never met, Tanya sets out to prove Danica is being catfished. This is one of those movies I really wasn’t looking forward to because I am not a fan of director Tyler Perry. Yeah, this film is plagued by all of the problems. I hate all of these characters. They don’t do much of anything besides yell and talk all over each other. To be fair, they talk all over each other less than they did in Boo! A Madea Halloween (the last Tyler Perry movie I saw). The writing is not good. For example, Tanya admits that she has seen the movie Bridesmaids and the TV show Catfish, but doesn’t know what Skype is. To give an example, Skype was first released in 2003, but started getting popular in 2011 (the same year that the movie Bridesmaids was released). Furthermore, the plot has a lot of contrivances. There are points where the movie could have easily ended, but some new plot twist just keeps it going longer than it needs to. It also makes Danica come off as thoroughly unlikable at every occasion possible. The movie was honestly predictable for most of the movie. One of those plot conveniences also ties into my all-time least favorite cliche (the third act misunderstanding). Why does every filmmaker seem to think romantic comedies need this bullshit? The jokes very rarely land. The one point I legitimately thought was funny was a scene between Whoopi Goldberg and Tiffany Haddish. I will be the first person to admit that I am not the audience for most Tyler Perry movies, so take these criticisms with a grain of salt. As much as I don’t particularly like the characters, I will give the performers some props (especially Tiffany Haddish, Omari Hardwick, and Whoopi Goldberg). One of the things that this movie tries to sell is a budding relationship between Danica and Hardwick’s character (named Frank). The problem I have with this is that Frank has a lot more chemistry with Tanya than he does with Danica. A moment of dread came over me once I realized I was only a third of the way through. The guys from Catfish show up, and they play themselves. These two are fine, even if they aren’t the greatest actors in the world. Okay, I won’t sugarcoat this. Nobody’s Fool is one of the most agonizing watches I had for the year, even if I can admit it had its couple shining moments here and there. When it isn’t annoying me, it’s just incredibly dull. I can already say that this movie is guaranteed a spot on my worst of the year list.

2 / 10