Tyler Perry’s ‘Good Deeds’ is too predictable

Tyler Perry in 'Good Deeds'
Tyler Perry in ‘Good Deeds’

Good Deeds is the 11th film from the prolific Tyler Perry who directed, wrote, produced and stars in it.  This is the 10th time he’s starred in one of his films and this time he let the women wear the dresses.

Perry is “Wesley Deeds”, who is the scion of a family where he represents the fifth consecutive generation of highly educated, highly successful men.  He is currently the CEO of the business his father founded, engaged to be married to the woman of his dreams, “Natalie” (Gabrielle Union), dealing with a brother who has enough problems for the entire family himself, Walter (Brian White), a mother who has had his whole life planned for him (Phylicia Rashad) and a major business headache on the horizon.

The business problem is solvable, thanks to his right hand man “John” (Eddie Cibrian), despite Walter’s best efforts to ruin the business and everything else in his life.  Wesley’s life appears perfect.  Almost too perfect, as it is also clearly predictable, particularly to his fiancee who knows what he’s going to do before he does it.  Everything is running along smooth as silk until the morning when he arrives for work and finds Lindsay (Thandie Newton) parked in his reserved parking space.

Lindsay is a single parent with the prototypically adorable daughter Ariel, and a life that by contrast to Wesley’s existence, is rapidly coming apart at the seams.  She can’t pay her rent.  The IRS has just garnished most of the paycheck she was counting on to make up the balance of the rent.  She’s being forced to start working nights when she had no childcare available.  And when she returns to her car, it’s about to be towed away at the insistence of Walter.

Feeling sympathy for the woman, particularly since her daughter is sitting in the parked vehicle, Wesley stops the towing, but by the time Lindsay returns home to plead for more time to pay the rent, her belongings are already on the street.  Now she’s homeless in addition to her other problems.  She also encounters Wesley again, and suddenly realizes he’s not just some guy in a suit whose parking space she borrowed, he’s the big boss and she was none too polite to him during the towing debacle.


The rest of the tale is very predictable and for the most part, well-executed.

I won’t be overly nit-picky and will refrain from describing a few mistakes that won’t detract from the viewing experience.  The highly observant and those with knowledge in some narrow areas might delight in hunting them down and listing them on websites that focus on film “goofs”.  But there are only a couple and the quality of the story overcomes them with style.  There is a moral question to be answered here and it’s a very simple one.  Even if you have what everyone else thinks is everything, is that in and of itself enough for you to be happy.

My only real quibble is the ending.  I’d have ended it a bit sooner.  Just a couple of moments, but those moments would have been far more interesting to ponder, rather than being seen.

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