I was tricked. For weeks, I have been avoiding Diary of a Mad Black Woman because I figured it would be just another black comedy like Cookout. Oddly enough, it’s not. It’s a gospel stage play turned into a movie with a few elements of black comedy. I thought the “mad black woman” was the old lady on the cover. Instead, it’s Kimberly Elise, who stars in another gospel stage play turned into a movie, TD Jakes’s Woman, Thou Art Loosed.

I thought it was going to be a story about some crazy grandma. Instead, it’s a story about the redeeming power of Jesus. Very surprising. Like all gospel stage plays, it has many weaknesses. But it’s not what it looks like on the cover.