''Not Easily Broken'' is a 2009 American

romantic comedy Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typica ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by Bill Duke. The film is written by

Brian Bird Brian Bird is an American film and television writer and producer. He is best known for his work on ''Touched by an Angel'', ''Not Easily Broken'', '' Jamaa'', ''Captive'' and '' The Case for Christ''. He is also known as an executive producer and ...

based on

T. D. Jakes Thomas Dexter Jakes (born June 9, 1957), known as T. D. Jakes, is an American bishop, author and filmmaker. He is the bishop of The Potter's House, a non-denominational American megachurch. Jakes's church services and Evangelistic sermons are ...

' 2006 novel of the same name. Stars Taraji P. Henson and Morris Chestnut.

Plot

Dave and Clarice Johnson have reached a breaking point in their marriage. When Clarice is injured in a car crash, her mother Mary intervenes. The obvious truth that more than just her injuries need immediate attention is exposed. Clarice begins to be treated by Julie, a physical therapist. Dave develops a friendship with Julie and her young son Bryson. The acceptance and comfort Dave finds in the two stirs his longing for a family and a passionate partner. When Bryson unexpectedly dies in a swimming accident, Dave and Julie's relationship grows closer as Clarice pulls farther away. Dave and Clarice must confront whether their marriage vows are or are not easily broken. Dave later visits Julie after she calls him, and he comforts her in her grief. They begin to kiss, but Dave realizes it is Clarice he truly wants. The couple reunites once Clarice expresses to him the reasons for her mother having such a big input in their marriage. They reunite and Dave finds out that Clarice is pregnant.

Cast

* Morris Chestnut as Dave Johnson *

Taraji P. Henson Taraji Penda Henson ( ; born September 11, 1970) is an American actress. She studied acting at Howard University and began her Hollywood career in guest roles on several television shows before making her breakthrough in '' Baby Boy'' (2001). Sh ...

as Clarice Clark-Johnson * Maeve Quinlan as Julie Sawyer * Kevin Hart as Tree * Wood Harris as Darnell Gooden * Eddie Cibrian as Brock Houseman *

Jenifer Lewis Jenifer Jeanette Lewis (born January 25, 1957) is an American actress. She began her career appearing in Broadway musicals and worked as a back-up singer for Bette Midler before appearing in films ''Beaches'' (1988) and ''Sister Act'' (1992). Le ...

as Mary "Mama" Clark * Niecy Nash as Michelle *Cannon Jay as Bryson Sawyer * Albert Hall as Bishop Wilkes * Henry Brown Jr. as Mr. Reid *

as Allen

Awards

At the Black Reel Awards, Bill Duke was nominated for ''Best Director'', and Brian Bird was nominated for ''Best Screenplay, Original or Adapted''.

won ''Best Actress'' at the '' BET Awards'' for her role in the film combined with two other performances in '' The Curious Case of Benjamin Button'', and ''

The Family That Preys ''The Family That Preys'' is a 2008 American comedy-drama film, written, produced, and directed by Tyler Perry. The screenplay focuses on two families, one wealthy and the other working class, whose lives are intertwined in both love and business ...

''. Albert Hall won the ''Grace Award for Movies'' at the 2010 ''Movieguide Awards''.

Reception

The film has received mainly mixed reviews from critics. ,

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

reports a 31% approval rating, based on 68 reviews with an average of 4.65/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Though well-intentioned, ''Not Easily Broken'' is bogged down by melodramatic plotting and stereotypical characters". Another review aggregator,

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, gave the film a 43/100 approval rating based on 18 reviews.

Box office performance

On its opening weekend, it opened #9 with $5,600,000 in 724 theaters with an $7,735 average. In total it made a domestic gross of $10,572,742.

References

External links

* * *
Morris Chestnut: The ''Not Easily Broken'' interview with Kam Williams
{{Bill Duke 2009 romantic comedy-drama films American romantic comedy-drama films Films based on American novels Films directed by Bill Duke TriStar Pictures films 2009 comedy films 2009 drama films 2009 films 2000s English-language films 2000s American films