Review: The Single Moms Club
The Single Moms Club, written and directed by Tyler Perry, is both an entertaining and emotionally satisfying feature film about single mothers. When five single moms from different backgrounds, circumstances, and personalities come together to serve on a committee at their children’s private school, they are forced to examine and reflect on their choices, their lifestyles, their parenting techniques, and ultimately they try to re-connect with their children. The women form a support group for single moms, bond with one another, and become great friends.
What works well in this film is that Perry selected to portray a cross-section of single mother profiles as characters in the film: May (Nia Long) is a reporter and would-be author raising a son on her own while the boy’s father, a drug addict, is absent. Jan (Wendi McLendon-Covey) is a career-oriented single mother by choice who is vying for partner in the high stakes publishing world. Hillary (Amy Smart) is a divorced mother on the edge who now must raise her children with reduced alimony payments from her former husband. Hillary fires the maid because she can no longer afford to pay her and must learn how to parent her children all alone – something she has never done before. Esperanza (Zulay Henao) is a woman with a daughter who must learn to stand up to her former, abusive husband in order to start a new life with her boyfriend. Lastly, Lytia (Cocoa Brown) tries to steer her young son in the right direction after several of her other sons have wound up in jail. She must overcome many obstacles in terms of income, job security, and lack of education to do so, but she possesses the courage and strength to get her through.
While one could comment on the fact that Perry’s characters are somewhat stereotypical and that his writing and directing choices may hit home the same tired message that a single mother is somehow “less than” without the presence of a man in her life to “sweep her off her feet and rescue her,” his film is not a documentary nor an academic discourse on single motherhood in America. A screenplay/film must adhere to certain specifications in terms of structure, plot, division of acts, and characters. Perry made his choices with these in mind in order for the film to be commercially viable. His characters do represent some examples of single mothers in society, and so they do work in the film. Also, it is fulfilling that the women do find love at the end – who wouldn’t want that for anybody? Could the script have been strengthened or made more authentic with a single mother co-writer? Perhaps, but Perry is, unquestionably, a talented writer and director. His dialogue writing, comedic flair, structure, and character arcs are excellent. The film must be viewed with these aspects in mind.
What works best in the film is that Perry tugs at the audience’s emotional heart strings, especially in terms of the mothers’ relationships and interactions with their children. The women do come to new understandings about themselves and their parenting, and as a result, their relationships with their children improve dramatically. After all, that’s what the film is all about! Tyler Perry fans will embrace The Single Moms Club, and it will do well with single mothers by chance, circumstance, or choice everywhere.
