With an extremely low score of '27' on Metacritic, Tyler Perry's Temptation was universally panned by the critics. On Metacritic, Perry managed only 1 positive review, 2 mixed and 11 negatives. Still, the first week the picture came out, it managed a #3 ranking at the box office. Based on his own stage play, Perry has been quoted as saying that the film version is the best thing he's ever written. In reality, Temptation is no different than most of the soap operas out there today. It's a cheap little story, with thin characters and an over-moralizing plot.

The protagonist is Judith, a marriage counselor, who provides a cautionary tale of infidelity to a client, pretending that the subject is her sister, but is actually her own life story. During the overlong narration at the beginning of the film, Judith's story is explained in a flashback that serves as most of the film's narrative. Judith married her childhood sweetheart, Brice, who works in a pharmacy. They supposedly have a picture book relationship but it appears Judith is a bit of a social climber, desiring to start her own match making business.

Meanwhile, Judith's actual job is working for Janice (Vanessa Williams),who runs a high-end match making agency, seeking clients of substantial means. I found it difficult to believe that Judith could have lasted more than a few days there, as she constantly makes it clear that she resents working at the tawdry agency. Kim Kardashian, plays her bitchy co-worker, Ava, who criticizes her for dressing too conservatively and the two exchange barbs until Judith's sudden about face at the midpoint, when she embraces a new world of 'depravity'.

For most of the film, Judith is a rigid, unlikeable character, egged on by her mother 'Miss Sarah', an old-fashioned, fire and brimstone Christian, who predicts her daughter's fall from grace. Perry can do little with Brice, a cookie-cutter 'nice guy', who exhibits few personality traits of interest. All Perry seems to know about Brice's involvement in the pharmacy business is that he must constantly toil, taking care of the 'inventory' which makes him tired, and less attentive to Judith when gets home. Note that it's really irrelevant what kind of work Brice does, as it could be any type of business. Perry is not concerned with fleshing out his characters by focusing on the idiosyncratic details of their lives—only the tawdry plot which will be discussed in a moment.

The main plot of Temptation involves Harley, a social media magnate, who is one of Janice's clients at her match making agency, and who she hopes will invest in her company. Harley hardly seems like a Bill Gates type but more like a slick player from the sports world (note again, the characters' professions are irrelevant and interchangeable). He ends up falling for Judith and two thirds of the movie seems more like a story ripped from a Harlequin Romance, with Harley courting Judith at such venues as his private jet, breaking her down and eventually seducing her.

From true romance, Perry shifts gears in the third act, attempting to turn his soap opera into a sordid thriller, a la Brian de Palma. Suddenly Harley has morphed into a drug-addicted monster and sucks Judith into the sleazy club world (not very good for his image as social media magnate but more believable as a superstar pro football player). Harley the monster throws Judith's mother to the ground while she's conducting a prayer service with her friends and then ends up beating Judith up, who Brice saves after his co-worker at the pharmacy reveals that Harley did the same thing to her and gave her HIV.

The worst part of Temptation is of course Mr. Perry's proclivity toward old-fashioned moralizing. An affair in Mr. Perry's mind can only result in the worst type of consequences. The woman ends up with the 'devil' himself (the repulsive Harley) and is then scarred for the rest of her life. As Judith hobbles down the street at film's end, the scene reminds me of the nightmare sequence from 'It's a Wonderful Life', where Mary Bailey ends up a spinster, working at the public library. Here too, Judith will remain a spinster, joining her boring mother, at church services. Perry takes the side of moralizing Christians, promoting the dictum: 'if you cheat, you pay'.

Like most melodramas of this ilk, Tyler Perry doesn't know how to create characters that resemble real people. They are only cheap cardboard cutouts, placed inside a narrative that's been done to death, for years. The fact that this film was financially successful, only goes to show that the tastes of the majority of film goers out there today, are on a very low, aesthetic level.

"Overwrought" is the word to describe Tyler Perry's Temptation. Between the simple conflicts, cardboard characters, and stiflingly slow dialog almost entirely erected off of carbon-copy dramas, it shows its agonizingly long roots by taking every possible scenario and stretching it to a length beyond maddening tedium. There's almost no need to even write a review on this picture, because if you're not turned off by the name "Tyler Perry," you're likely turned off by the amateur cast the film boasts, the dopey plot(s),or the presence of the always wooden, never charismatic Kim Kardashian.

Tyler Perry's films have been a roller-coaster for a non-fan like myself. I believe his pictures almost demand the audience to have ability to relate too its characters on screen, and if you don't, then you've demolished one of the crucial ways of being able to like the film as a whole. But if you even if you do have the relatable factor down, there are still a number of other characteristics of his pictures that will do the job of turning you off. The abundance of clichés, stereotypes, senseless slapstick, religious motives, and ridiculous characters is enough to warrant a walk-out.

The film stars Jurnee Smollett-Bell and Lance Gross as Judith and Brice, childhood sweethearts that are married in an upper-class area. She is a matchmaker, working to become a full-time marriage counselor, while he is a pharmacist and a successful one at that. After six years of marriage, Judith becomes greatly unsatisfied by the drab life she is living, and in due-time because she meets Harley (Robbie Jones),an immensely successful, social-networking pioneer who is in dire need of a woman. From first sight, Judith is mesmerized by his confidence, money, and ability to talk a woman up as big as the house he lives in. We see where this is going, but Judith, who appears very bright and focused - with a mind similar to Kimberly Elise's character in Diary of a Mad Black Woman - doesn't. Soon, they are sneaking around, having sexual fun together, while she is being showered with gifts, all while trying to remain indiscreet to Brice.

This is the immediate problem of Tyler Perry's Temptation; there are no likable characters (except Brice),no characters with any intelligent judgment, and no characters that extend themselves past formulaic and dull. Take Judith for example, who we are allegedly supposed to sympathize with, even during the instances when she is cheating. We're just supposed to think, "well, it's justifiable since she's upset and Brice doesn't stand up for her as a man should." There's no justification for cheating, but the film makes it out to be up until things go really, really wrong.

It's, too, relevant that the film loves making ordeals out of petty non-issues such as Brice not standing up for Judith when she is cat-called by a group of thugs on their night out. Judith proceeds to go to bed angry and embarrassed by her husband's lack of gall to defend her or even initiate something. A scene not long after shows Harley almost beating a cyclist to a pulp after running into Judith when she was clearly at fault. Is he how men should behave? The film tries to show us that, even though his actions are grossly immature compared to Brice's, he's better because he at least tries.

Tyler Perry's Temptation fails in large part, however, because of its writing. It is an early candidate for the worst written film of the year. It runs on the fuel of inane dialog, corny lines, and senseless drama. Take for example the scene when Harley and Judith are on his private plane, and Harley questions what Judith "dreams about." When she responds, she ricochets the question off of him, to which he replies, "of you?" in a delivery that is akin to primetime soap operas. I can't remember cringing harder to a line of dialog. Then there's a scene where Judith is found battered in a bathtub. When Brice asks her, "where does it hurt?" she replies, "here," while placing her hand on his heart. To see the audience eat scenes up like this makes me deeply, deeply scared to think they have romantic expectations probably not alien to the kind in this film.

The leads aren't dreadful here, as Smollett-Bell and Gross are the kind of actors you crave to watch in better material, but the presence of reality-TV star Kim Kardashian in a film is about as off-putting and as tasteless as the persona she gives on that godforsaken program of her's. Why must Kardashian inhabit a secondary role in this film, let alone a role at all? Why not find a bodacious woman with huge breasts, a huge buttocks, and wildly unrealistic curves with no celebrity appeal for half the price? Perry's name alone is big enough to sell the most lurid screenplay/movie, so why work a role for her? It doesn't matter, though; I'm wasting words. She's about as unappealing and cloying as a secondary character played by an unnecessary celebrity can get. It will take a performance of a true despicable nature to dethrone her from a "Worst New Actress" award at the forthcoming Razzies.

Tyler Perry's Temptation is a sermon that will effectively preach to the choir that has graciously accepted every film he has released since Diary of a Mad Black Woman back in 2005. However, it has become clear now that public success is all that matters to Perry. He no longer seems to have ambition to make films that cater to a denominator other than the lowest or the most demanding. He attempts to get by on melodramatic clichés, laughable dialog, moral preachiness, inclusions of a sappy Christian agenda, and frustratingly inert plotpoints. I wish him well, and hope one day I can recommend a movie by him. I respect him as a self-made filmmaker, but that's about it, I'm afraid.

Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor is a film produced, written, and directed by Tyler Perry. It features Jurnee Smollett- Bell,Lance Gross,Kim Kardashian,Vanessa Williams,Robbie Jones,Brandy and Brandy Norwood.The film is adapted from Perry's play, The Marriage Counselor.

Judith is a therapist working at a matchmaking agency.She is married to her childhood sweetheart Brice whom she has known since she was six. Judith is dissatisfied with her job and anxious to start her own business in marriage counseling, but Brice is cautious and tells her to wait until they are more financially stable, which frustrates Judith. She is further frustrated when Brice refuses to confront men who catcall her on their way home from dinner.Judith later meets Harley while at work, a wealthy Internet entrepreneur who wants to invest in Janice's business. Harley attempts to seduce Judith as they work late together over the matchmaking surveys. When Harley questions as to why there is no discussion regarding sex, Judith reveals that she does not believe in premarital sex. Harley concludes Judith's sex life is boring and on a schedule, which leads Judith to question her sex life with Brice. She tries to spice up their sex life later at home, only to be rejected. For her birthday, Judith does something new with her hair and makeup. Brice fails to notice and forgets about her birthday. Later at work, she is sent flowers and happily believes them to be from Brice. However, Harley arrives and immediately takes notice of her change in appearance, revealing the flowers are actually from him. When Judith questions why he is always meeting with her, Harley admits he is willing to do anything just to be near her. At home, Brice still has no idea that it is Judith's birthday. Judith reminds him by leaving a cupcake with a candle in it on the counter. Realizing his mistake, Brice makes it up to her by dancing in a cowboy outfit and singing. Judith is sent to New Orleans with Harley to finalize a deal with shareholders. Janice tells her to flirt with Harley, but not to compromise herself and to be careful. Judith gives coworker Ava permission to make her over, switching to more sexy clothes, before joining Harley on a private jet for the trip. Once in New Orleans, Judith and Harley seal the business deal and go out drinking, eating, dancing and sightseeing together. On the way home, Harley makes a move on her and, although initially resistant, she gives in and they have sex on his plane.And an affair starts between the two of them.

In a departure from his previous movies, this explosive film finds Perry exploring the nature of desire and just how powerful and dangerous a taste of the forbidden can be.Despite of its underlying theme,one thing noticeable about it is that Judith and Harley spend more than thirty minutes conversing,talking and glancing at one another before any affair starts.There is barely anything sexual going on that greatly affects the interest of the viewer.Also,it plagues the narrative that one hardly cares after a certain amount of time.Too bad that the efforts brought by the performances of Smollett-Bell, Gross, and Brandy,who work very hard to bring an emotional authenticity to their characters and relationships,was completely negated by the pacing of the film.Despite its interesting theme about how and why a marriage gets dull,the viewer is treated to a melodrama that could probably turn off many viewers.