| The Family That Preys | |
| Director: | Tyler Perry |
| Producer: | Tyler Perry |
| Starring: |
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| Music: | Aaron Zigman |
| Cinematography: | Toyomichi Kurita |
| Editing: | Maysie Hoy |
| Distributor: | Lionsgate |
| Runtime: | 106 minutes |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Gross: | $37.1 million[1] |
The Family That Preys is a 2008 American comedy-drama film, written, produced, and directed by Tyler Perry. The screenplay focuses on two families, one wealthy and the other working class, whose lives are intertwined in both love and business.
Socialite Charlotte Cartwright hosts the wedding of Andrea—the daughter of Charlotte's best friend, Alice Evans—and construction worker Chris Bennett. Meanwhile, Charlotte's son, William, and his wife, Jillian, have eloped instead of letting Charlotte plan an elaborate reception for them.
Four years later, Andrea's sister, Pam, is married to Ben and looks after Andrea's three-year-old son for extra income while working at their mother's diner. Andrea does not help their mother more financially, but has designer clothes and a new Mercedes. Andrea is actually enjoying the perks of being in an extramarital affair with William.
Chris dreams of opening a construction firm with Ben, but Andrea ridicules those aspirations. At the bank, Chris is rejected for a loan application, but discovers Andrea deposited nearly $300,000 in a secret account. Andrea eventually catches Chris going through her hidden financial records. She says that the money is bonuses she received from William and refuses to finance his business.
William is determined to take the family business from his mother, believing the $500-million deal he recently closed will prove his capabilities. Charlotte hires Abigail "Abby" Dexter as COO and determines the company will have to front $25 million to make William's deal viable. The only way to raise the money is for Charlotte to sell 10% of her shares, leaving her with a minority vote. William tells Abby that Charlotte's vote and his vote combined will give the Cartwrights continued control; Abby advises Charlotte to sell her shares.
Charlotte asks Alice to go on a road trip in the vintage convertible Charlotte bought. Alice agrees, and they head west without a set route or schedule. Charlotte introduces Alice to honky-tonks and male strip clubs. Alice reciprocates by taking Charlotte to a communal baptism. Charlotte eventually becomes stressed out and reveals she has early-onset Alzheimer's disease. She was told nothing can slow her mental decline.
At the company gala, both Jillian and Abby discover Andrea and William's affair. William fires Chris and Ben after Chris asks for money to start a construction business of their own. Abby warns Andrea of the repercussions of the affair that will likely result in her termination from the company. Andrea disagrees, believing that William will protect her. Convinced that they were marital assets, Chris takes the money from the hidden account and pays deposits to start a construction firm with Ben.
Charlotte and Alice return to Atlanta. Andrea confronts Chris for taking her $300,000. She says that he and Ben will never be like William. Ben states that nobody cares about William and that Andrea cannot see that because of the affair. Andrea admits to Chris that the money was from William, her lover. Furious, Chris slaps her. Andrea, further incensed, tells him to keep the money and move out. As Chris brings up their son, Andrea says that William is the father.
Alice tries to persuade Andrea to reconcile with Chris and end her affair, explaining that it will not last and William will never marry her, begging her to stop before her life is destroyed. Andrea refuses to listen to her.
William plots to take over the family firm. Jillian goes to Charlotte for advice. Charlotte reminds her that she is a woman scorned without a prenuptial agreement, and as such can divorce or reconcile and be okay either way. Jillian warns Charlotte of William's plan to have the board vote her out.
Chris confronts William on a job site and punches him. Jillian then confronts Andrea in the hotel room where trysts with William were held each Wednesday, and warns her to stay away from her family and that William will not be seeing her again.
Charlotte calls a board meeting and fires William with the support of the Calvary Company, a silent investor revealed to be Alice. Alice has been receiving financial guidance for years from Nicholas "Nick" Blanchett, a homeless man she frequently fed at her diner. Nick had been a regular customer who left large tips until he lost his job, wife, and custody of his children. Nick still visits the diner regularly and pays Alice with investment advice. Nick was working for William as a stockbroker until William fired him without cause.
In the parking lot, Andrea approaches William unaware of the recent events and expecting him to leave Jillian for her. Instead, he washes his hands of Andrea, and drives away, ignoring her claim that he is her son's father. Charlotte commits suicide by taking a deadly combination of pills.
Chris later becomes wealthier after opening a firm with Ben. Andrea, on the other hand, becomes guilt-ridden, heartbroken and unemployed. She is forced to live in a low-rent apartment and rely on child support from Chris to survive. Nick is wealthy and buys a house. He has always been wealthy, but after his wife died and lost his kids he just kept on moving around. William and Jillian reconcile. Alice sells the diner, driving off in the car that Charlotte left her, with a photo of her and Charlotte taped to the dashboard, to start life anew on the road.
The film opened in 2,070 theaters in North America on September 12, 2008 and grossed $17.4 million in its opening weekend, ranking #2 at the box office behind Burn After Reading. It eventually earned $37.1 million domestically, making it the second-least successful of Tyler Perry's films ahead of Daddy's Little Girls.[2]
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 53% based on 43 reviews, with an average rating of 5.90/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Tyler Perry's The Family That Preys treads the filmmaker's established terrain of family loyalty and moral uprightness, though the occasionally predictable plot slides forward, aided by an excess of soapy melodrama."[3] Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 49 out of 100, based on 14 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[4] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.[5]
Stephen Holden of The New York Times said:
The New York Daily News rated the film three out of five stars and commented:
Claudia Puig of USA Today said the best thing about the film
Stephen Farber of The Hollywood Reporter observed:
Roger Moore of the Orlando Sentinel rated the film two out of five stars and called it Tyler Perry's "most cinematically polished production to date" but also:
Peter Debruge of Variety said the film "recycles familiar ingredients according to his own unique formula, serving up a lip-smacking, finger-snapping sudser" and added:
Monika Fabian of Time Out New York said:
Ken Fox of TV Guide rated the film three out of four stars and said, "Thanks to some first-rate acting from its stars, it ranks among Perry's best."[6]
Tom Becker of DVD Verdict said:
Brian Orndorf of DVD Talk said:
Gregory Kirschling from Entertainment Weekly stated:
At the Black Reel Awards, both Alfre Woodard and Sanaa Lathan were nominated for Best Actress. Also Tyler Perry was nominated for Best Screenplay, Original or Adapted.
Taraji P. Henson won Best Actress at the BET Awards for her role in the film combined with two other performances in Not Easily Broken, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
The film was released on Blu-ray Disc and DVD on January 13, 2009. It is in anamorphic widescreen format, with audio tracks and subtitles in English and Spanish. Bonus features include deleted scenes, Two Families, Two Legends, which spotlights stars Alfre Woodard and Kathy Bates; Preying in the Big Easy, about filming in New Orleans; Casting the Family, with interviews with the director and cast, and Delving into the Diner, in which production designer Ina Mayhew discusses her concept for the set.