"Not Easily Broken" a thinly disguised sermon

By Kirk Honeycutt

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - "Not Easily Broken" is based on a novel by Bishop T.D. Jakes, who in this and previous books has found a way to deliver sermons in a fictional form.

So it comes as no surprise that the story is about a troubled marriage that gets healed when the couple returns to their pastor and accepts his words of wisdom. TriStar Pictures' Friday release is earnest, but a lively sense of humor helps the spiritual medicine go down.

The film is directly aimed at and will undoubtedly play only to the black community. Its viewers may not all be avid churchgoers, but few would willingly admit to this.

Wedding-day dreams have taken several unexpected turns when we catch up with Dave (Morris Chestnut) and Clarice (Taraji P. Henson). They live an extremely, if a tad overextended, upscale suburban life in Los Angeles, but it's Clarice who funds the lifestyle with her real estate commissions. Dave's baseball career was derailed by an ill-fated slide into home plate, so he runs a one-man construction/remodeling firm.

A car accident lays up Clarice for a while, providing an opening to her man-hating mother (Jenifer Lewis), who unfairly blames Dave for the crash, to move in and set about destroying the marriage.

Physical therapist and single mom Julie (Maeve Quinlan) comes on the scene. She makes a new woman out of Clarice -- physically, that is -- but on the basis of absolutely no evidence other than mom's motormouth, Clarice comes to suspect Dave is cheating on her with Julie.

Given the way the two women treat him in his own house, not a few men would entirely blame Dave. Both seem to hate the fact that he likes to coach a kids' baseball team, clearly a substitute for his wife's refusal to give him a child.

Fortunately, Dave has got a strong moral character, and his two hoops buddies -- played by Tree (Kevin Hart, who makes the most of the film's funniest lines) and Eddie Cibrian -- support his straight-and-narrow pathway.