Film

When couples hit a rough patch in the movies, it often turns into a more generalized gender war; it’s not John against Jane, it’s men against women. In this adaptation of T.D. Jakes’s novel, the sides are unevenly armed. Clarice (Henson) may have financial success as a real-estate agent, but she loses sympathy points by constantly complaining about all the time husband Dave (Chestnut) spends coaching underprivileged kids in baseball. Things weigh even more heavily against womankind when Clarice’s judgmental mother (Lewis) moves in to help Clarice recover from a broken leg and begins a campaign of Dave-demeaning.

No wonder Dave is tempted, if only slightly, by Clarice’s hot physical therapist Julie (Quinlan). But we know that he’s spending so much time with Julie simply because her son needs a father figure. But even Saint Dave is ready to throw in the towel on his marriage.

In keeping with Jakes’s philosophy (he’s the leader of a Dallas megachurch), the moral of the film, delivered gently but firmly, is that Dave and Clarice need to invite God back into their marriage. That’s a perfectly reasonable message, but it might resonate more if the script felt a little more fair and balanced in the battle of the sexes.