Word and Film: Resist ‘Temptation’ and Tyler Perry’s Shameful Use of HIV as Punishment

Word and Film The Intersection of Books, Movies, and Television

Resist 'Temptation' and Tyler Perry's Shameful Use of HIV as Punishment Apr 8th 2013, 13:50 No one expected Tyler Perry’s new film “Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor” to be perfect, or even particularly good. However, it would’ve been nice if the writer/director had avoided punishing even more of his adulterous characters with HIV/AIDS (lest we forget, he shoehorned the same plot device into 2010′s “For Colored Girls“). This open letter to Perry on Racialicious, written by a married minister-in-training who is living with HIV, confronts the filmmaker’s rampant and wildly misleading moralizing head-on. “I am thankful that I shall one day serve as an alternative to your version of Christianity,” he writes. I’d planned to go check this film out (I’ve loved Jurnee Smollett-Bell ever since “Eve’s Bayou”) but I’ve decided to pass until Perry gets his mind out of the gutter. Meanwhile, people like Jason Segel continue to spread love and light. The edgy comic’s affinity for puppeteering led him to a lead role in “The Muppets,” and now it appears he’s written a trilogy of YA novels about “kids facing their biggest fears.” Who would ever have expected all this from the guy who lost his towel in “Forgetting Sarah Marshall”? I’ve always been rooting for Kellan Lutz, but it’s starting to sound like he’s stretched a little thin. Not only is he stuck wearing one of those motion-capture suits for an animated “Tarzan” feature, but now he’s tied to a 3-D Hercules feature as well. The AV Club article goofs on the studio’s description of a kinder, more vulnerable hero by wondering if Lutz will  have a feelings-capture suit for the role. Either way it’s a bit mystifying. Why hire such a beautiful actor if you’re just going to (digitally) paint over him? If you’re looking for a new indie film to support, I’ve been hearing great things about “The Happy House,” about a Brooklyn couple whose trip to a remote B&B turns out to be anything but relaxing. If you’d like to help things along, visit their Netflix page and “save” it so it will pop up in your Queue when it becomes available. While you’re there, give its star rating a boost too — that is, if you enjoy the trailer below.

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