Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor 2013

Kate Erbland, MSN Movies: Perry's film lags and limps along its two-hour runtime before finally going whole hog on one of the most dizzyingly weird final acts in recent cinematic history. Read more

Andy Webster, New York Times: Limp pacing and countless shots of Washington's skyline plague the narrative. Read more

Scott Foundas, Variety: A ludicrous marital drama-cum-morality play from contemporary black cinema's most prolific multihyphenate. Read more

Nathan Rabin, AV Club: It isn't until Temptation grows flamboyantly bad in its final act that it rises to the level of good dumb fun in the trashy tradition of Perry's most entertainingly awful films. Read more

Chris Nashawaty, Entertainment Weekly: A few wild, third-act twists give Perry's middling melodrama some soap-opera kick. But all the finger-wagging sure does get tiring after a while. Read more

William Goss, Film.com: The first half is a functional (if exceedingly predictable) melodrama before devolving, just as predictably, into a cautionary cartoon. Read more

Wesley Morris, Grantland: Perry's movies have become so thematically grandiose, visually incoherent, and self-defensively bourgeois that the only way to receive them lately is as a cynic. Read more

Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter: This heavy-handed melodrama represents one of Tyler Perry's weakest efforts ever, and that's saying something. Read more

Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times: Perry's ongoing disinterest in improving as a filmmaker is now seemingly part of his unshakable belief in himself, his insistence on doing his thing his way. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: If Perry has had one strength as a dramatist, it's been his willingness to empathize with villains as well as victims. In Temptation, he lacks even that. Read more

Miriam Bale, New York Daily News: The mixed tones don't quite meld; While Smollet-Bell is fine, the broad comedy is so sporadic it feels out of place. Read more

Peter Sobczynski, Chicago Sun-Times: Tyler Perry's Temptation is an awful, awful film and while it is easy to mock and dismiss, it is also kind of a shame to behold. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: And really, who better to shill for the institution of marriage than 43-year-old bachelor Perry, who uses homosexuality as a punch line (or symbol of evil decadence) and HIV as a cheap plot gimmick? Read more

Nick Schager, Time Out: Tyler Perry's insane, inane Old Testament-style morality tale. Read more

Zachary Wigon, Village Voice: Perry has some worthwhile filmic models-Temptation gestures at Woody Allen in its setup, and Douglas Sirk in its melodrama-but he isn't even in the same star cluster as those greats. Read more

Jen Chaney, Washington Post: Look, we know what's going to happen. The movie's called Temptation, okay? Yet we still have to sit through more than an hour of flirty glances and repetitive conversations between Judith and Harley until anything vaguely adulterous occurs. Read more