Movie Review: “Nobody’s Fool”
Courtesy of Creative Commons
By Dodge Landesman 11/02/18
In the film “Girl’s Trip,” a star was born and her name is Tiffany Haddish. In her newest role in “Nobody’s Fool,” the star has proven she can single-handedly carry a film.
The newest film by director Tyler Perry, Haddish plays Tanya, an abrasive, loudmouth ex-convict who moves in with her sister Danica, played by an elegant, if not stiff, Tika Sumpter, after being released from jail after five years.
We quickly find the two sisters to be polar opposites in many stereotypical and unsurprising ways.
Danica is extremely wealthy, but what she possesses in wealth, she lacks in emotional satisfaction (or at least that seems to be what Perry aims to hit the audience over the head with).
After incessant needling from her sister, Danica reveals that there is a special man, Charles, whom she has met with online, but due to his work as a supposed high-powered executive overseeing an oil rig, she has yet to meet him in person or even on video chat.
Tanya gets suspicious, and in the most hilarious twist in the film, enlists Nev and Max, of the MTV show Catfish, to uncover the truth of Danica’s mysterious love interest.
Tanya has an extra incentive, however, as she aims to play matchmaker by introducing Danica to the gentleman who owns and works at the coffee shop where Tanya is newly employed.
Frank, played by Omari Hardwick, is genial and somewhat boring and seems to be created by Perry’s as the ideal of every woman’s typical dream— handsome, smart, and smooth, but Danica’s has issues with his sordid past.
Further antics ensue, with some punchlines paying off while many do not.
Chris Rock makes a truly inspired cameo as a character Danica and Tanya run into in the midst of their quest for romantic truth, while Whoopi Goldberg has a very amusing small role as the mother, who seems to be more focused on her new found discovery of medical marijuana than actually helping her overbearing daughters.
While Hardwick and Sumpter have good chemistry, they are natural around each other and create some steamy scenes, but Perry boxes the usually talented Sumpter into a two-dimensional role, with little room for laughs.
His idea of the serious young woman who has a career but no time for a man (with the implied shame that comes with it) seems incredibly antiquated.
Still, Haddish chews up the scenery in the best way possible, and almost every line she is given she turns into gold. Luckily, she is in most of the film.
Haddish, as well as the appearances of Rock and Goldberg, make a ticket purchase worth it.
Still, audiences may wish that Haddish was given some more challenging and intelligent material.