Critic Reviews

Simultaneously both archetypal Tyler Perry and another step in the direction of nuance and thoughtfulness for the filmmaker.

While Wesley is both too good to be true and an absence of a charisma on screen, Good Deeds is very fair to its two main female characters even as they're both entangled with the same man.

Perry holds back on the finger-wagging, eye-bulging tantrums. There were moments when I was grateful for that. There were others, like the kissy scenes between Perry and Newton, when I began to miss them.

What the film needs more than anything is Perry's alter ego, Medea – a rampaging bowling ball who might knock all these stiff, upright characters spinning.

This soapy effort about a prosperous businessman having a midlife crisis finds Perry working in the heavily melodramatic mode that marks his weakest efforts.

As Wesley Deeds - get it? - Perry is stripped of Madea's fat suit and fright wig, but his performance is so muted, he might as well be swaddled in cloth.

Good Deeds is relentlessly unsurprising in its plotting and borderline comical in its melodramatic flourishes.

Watching the impossibly dry and somnambulant Good Deeds, you actually miss that crazy side of Perry. It's sort of ironic: Here's a film about a guy who's being false to his true self, and you realize the director might be doing the same.

This film - like all the Madea-free dramas - could use more humor. Still, every Perry movie has its highs and lows. This time, the highs are a little higher, and the lows not quite so low. There is no faith-based message, but the moral is obvious: persistence pays off.

Newton's character is the only one we really become invested in. At least that's something. But Good Deeds leaves you wanting much more.