I've said pretty much all I can say about the genius of Tyler Perry, which doesn't leave me a lot of room for processing the formula at work in the new trailer for his upcoming I Can Do Bad All by Myself. You know the melodrama drill: Black woman adrift, wayward kids, moustache-twirling bad guys, chaste hunks, spiritual rebirth, and Perry's own muumuu-ed Madea to provide a nucleus for it all. Ho-hum, just another masterpiece -- except wait! Is that Gladys Knight?
Hell yes, it is. Not that I have any idea what she's doing there with Taraji P. Henson's alcoholic vocalist April, whose custody of three kleptomaniac brats (and introduction to a suave, if homeless church handyman) will probably conclude in some sort of redemption breakthrough. All I know is she's plumbing every word of Perry's dialogue for maximum inspiration ("I have such high hopes for you, April!") and setting up for a musical climax on what looks like the same set where Jennifer Hudson bottomed out in Dreamgirls. Cue the choir, cue the tears, cue the comeback. Oh, and while you're at it, another $50-$60 million gross. Gladys, you're forgiven for Hollywood Homicide.
VERDICT: Of course.