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Not Easily Broken

Not Easily Broken (2009)

tomatometer

34

Average Rating: 4.7/10
Reviews Counted: 68
Fresh: 23 | Rotten: 45

Though well-intentioned, Not Easily Broken is bogged down by melodramatic plotting and stereotypical characters.

56

Average Rating: 5.4/10
Critic Reviews: 16
Fresh: 9 | Rotten: 7

Though well-intentioned, Not Easily Broken is bogged down by melodramatic plotting and stereotypical characters.

audience

66

liked it
Average Rating: 3.3/5
User Ratings: 68,665

My Rating

Movie Info

Director Bill Duke steps behind the camera for this adaptation of the T.D. Jakes novel concerning a newly married couple that finds their union threatened by pressures involving faith, family, and finances. As the couple exchanges their vows, the minister lays a cord around them while uttering the blessing, "a threefold cord is not easily broken." Later, during their darkest hour, the minister's advice to always keep God at the center of their marriage could be the only thing that keeps this

PG-13, 1 hr. 40 min.

Drama, Horror

Brian Bird

Apr 7, 2009

$10.6M

Screen Gems/SONY PICTURES

Cast

All Critics (69) | Top Critics (16) | Fresh (24) | Rotten (45) | DVD (2)

Laughter through tears is director Bill Duke's M.O., and he hits the bull's-eye of that modest target.

January 14, 2009 Full Review Source: Entertainment Weekly | Comment
Entertainment Weekly
Top Critic IconTop Critic

[It] has the saving grace of a lively sense of humor that certainly helps the spiritual medicine go down.

January 9, 2009 Comment
Hollywood Reporter
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Not Easily Broken isn't perfect, but it is persuasive in its portrait of a husband and wife who must decide whether their frayed marriage is worth fighting to save.

January 9, 2009 Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | Comment
Los Angeles Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

A well-crafted message picture disguised as soap opera.

January 9, 2009 Full Review Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune | Comment
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Why go for imitation Tyler Perry when the master is so industrious? Perry's next one should be along in about 10 minutes.

January 9, 2009 Full Review Source: New York Post | Comment
New York Post
Top Critic IconTop Critic

It turns out, though, that a woman can save any marriage with a little home cooking and extra sex.

January 9, 2009 Full Review Source: Newsday | Comment
Newsday
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The always immaculate, passionate and soulful Jenifer Lewis -- she could read the words in a phone book and make you feel it. The Hollywood veteran nearly saves the film.

June 10, 2009 Full Review Source: BET.com | Comment
BET.com

This is glossy, forgettable fare more at home as a TV matinée.

April 21, 2009 Full Review Source: Daily Express | Comment
Daily Express

That's a reasonable message, but it might feel more resonant if the script were a little fairer to both sexes.

April 17, 2009 Full Review Source: Time Out | Comment

It is unspeakably naff, unintentionally funny and unapologetically Christian. Judged on its own terms, it's a resounding success. But for non-believers it will likely prove a living purgatory.

April 17, 2009 Full Review Source: Film4 | Comment

It has all the philosophical depth of a greetings card message but it's underscored with a nasty little edge of misogyny.

April 17, 2009 Full Review Source: Times [UK] | Comment
Times [UK]

What should be easily broken is a large china vase over the head of everyone involved in this profoundly creepy, yucky, and chillingly reactionary relationship drama.

April 17, 2009 Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | Comment
Guardian [UK]

Not Easily Broken is 99 long minutes worth of sobbing and hand wringing, with little insight and even less humour. Deadly stuff.

April 17, 2009 Full Review Source: Total Film | Comment
Total Film

This is sermonising, not drama, and I suspect I won't be alone in finding it obnoxiously misogynistic.

April 17, 2009 Full Review Source: Daily Mail [UK] | Comment
Daily Mail [UK]

With its sermonising about the importance of being strong in the face of marital adversity - not to mention a sappy voiceover on the nature of suffering - the film feels more like a lecture than a drama.

April 17, 2009 Full Review Source: Daily Mirror [UK] | Comment
Daily Mirror [UK]

rather crude, occasionally risible, if never actively dislikeable melodrama.

April 17, 2009 Full Review Source: Financial Times | Comment
Financial Times

Well acted, but ultimately disappointing drama that's let down by a tedious script, sluggish direction, cloying sentimentality and an overwhelmingly sanctimonious central message.

April 17, 2009 Full Review Source: ViewLondon | Comment
ViewLondon

Reactionary, misogynistic marital drama.

April 17, 2009 Full Review Source: Scotsman | Comment

The film so goes against the grain of seculist and feminist thought that you just have to shrug your shoulders and ask: Hell, is it any good as a movie? Not really.

April 16, 2009 Full Review Source: Teletext | Comment
Teletext

a Tyler Perry movie without the Tyler Perry

April 7, 2009 Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com | Comment
Filmcritic.com

Faith-based entertainment at its best that you don't have to be Born Again to appreciate.

April 3, 2009 Full Review Source: NewsBlaze | Comment
NewsBlaze

If the crisis the couple endures seems real, the resolution needs a little more work to be convincing.

March 16, 2009 Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | Comment
eFilmCritic.com

a very well put together film that benefits from its star power, heartfelt characters and uplifting message.

February 9, 2009 Full Review | Comment
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Not Easily Broken

a paint by numbers only using a trowel instead of a brush, this film has mostly cardboard throwaway charactors and a message that you couldn't miss with both eyes closed. Said message, all wrapped up in a nice religious bow, seems to be that the only true relationship can be found by submitting to the procreational

December 24, 2009
maxthesax
paul sandberg

Super Reviewer

I saw this multi - dramatic motion picture and was emotionally moved as well as spiritually enchanted with the outcome of how this couple watched their trust and devotion in the vows of their marriage gets challenged to the max to the brink of collapse. See this, it is so vividly real....yet believable.

April 7, 2009
Fascade518

Super Reviewer

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