Tyler Perry is ‘Married’ to way too much drama

Here’s what filmmaker Tyler Perry does well: features characters not traditionally seen in movies.

Here’s where he could use help: toning down grossly over-the-top dramatics.

In “Why Did I Get Married?� he tackles the all-too-familiar terrain of the ups and downs of matrimony, introducing us to eight married friends (he plays one of them) who met while they were undergraduates at a historically black college.

One of the friends, successful psychologist and bestselling author Patricia (played by Janet Jackson), suggested some time ago that they all get together once a year for an annual couples’ retreat; this year they gather at a Colorado cabin right before a snowstorm.

This fourth Perry feature film -- like its predecessors that include “Diary of a Mad Black Woman� and “Madea’s Family Reunion� -- is an adaptation of one of his popular stage plays. Here he makes the religious overtones that have helped make him a household name much more subtle and largely embodied by Sheila (singer Jill Scott), who is in the throes of an immoderate, emotionally abusive relationship. Of course, her marriage isn’t the only one embedded with secrets and lies, and it all unfolds while the former college crew is together.

This film mines the same vein as Malcolm Lee’s “The Best Man,� which also featured an author-friend who uses his college pals for inspiration. Perry’s story is a less smart, less snappy version of that film, largely because the “Best Man� characters were more likable (even the bad ones) and their trials much more believable.

Yes, Perry succeeds at casting African Americans in a different light, as doctors and litigators and entrepreneurs who just happen to be black.

His downfall? Too much drama.

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“Why Did I Get Married?� MPAA rating: PG-13 for mature thematic material, sexual references and language. Running time: 1 hour, 58 minutes. In general release.