By Ann Hornaday
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, January 9, 2009

The spiritually infused melodrama "Not Easily Broken," adapted from a novel by megachurch leader Bishop T.D. Jakes, falls prey to many of the usual shortcomings of movies that secretly want to be sermons. Like Jakes's previous vehicle, "Woman, Thou Art Loosed," this saga of family dysfunction and eventual redemption suffers from its share of starchy contrivance and didacticism.

But, also like the earlier film, "Not Easily Broken" exerts an unmistakable appeal, thanks to an absorbing story and fine performances from Morris Chestnut and Taraji P. Henson. Between her portrayal of a brittle, conflicted wife in this outing and her scene-stealing turn as a compassionate adoptive mother in "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," Henson is proving yet again this season that she alone is a terrific reason to keep going to the movies.

Chestnut and Henson play Dave and Clarice, whose marriage began with high hopes of her becoming a real estate mogul and his becoming a professional baseball player. Jump-cut to real life, in which Clarice's real estate career has indeed taken off, but Dave's dreams have been dashed by an injury. He's working construction, but she's the breadwinner in sustaining a lifestyle that is way beyond their means. "Not Easily Broken" was made before the current credit meltdown, adding a sense of eerie prescience to its portrait of heedless middle-class materialism.

Their marriage already strained, Dave and Clarice drift apart until a crisis snaps them to attention. But even more tragedies are in store for the couple, who must also contend with constant withering commentary from Clarice's intrusive mother (played by turns to comic and monstrous effect by the great Jenifer Lewis). Dave increasingly finds solace in the company of his bros, including the hyper, super-sensitive Tree, played by a reliably manic Kevin Hart.

Yeoman director Bill Duke handles the myriad story lines and characters with a sometimes too-emphatic style (scenes of Dave playing basketball with his friends are filmed with irritating, ramped-up camera moves and a blue-tinged palette). A subplot involving an attractive physical therapist (Maeve Quinlan) is paced with all the narrative tension of an after-school special. But "Not Easily Broken" gets under your skin, largely thanks to the appeal of Chestnut and Henson, who project both easy warmth and flashes of spiky temperament. They give their characters, who could have been mere billboards, genuine life and verve as they grapple with changing roles within their marriage and society at large.

What's more, "Not Easily Broken" gratifyingly avoids the punitive anti-feminism toward which it occasionally seems to be veering. One of the most poignant scenes features Clarice and her mother arguing about the strength, pride and self-reliance that African American women have been forced to cultivate over the years, and whether that fierce independence might have a cost. The strength of "Not Easily Broken" is that those ideas are presented as questions, not accusations, making its resolution not just sentimental but genuinely satisfying. And amen to that.

Not Easily Broken (100 minutes, at area theaters) is rated PG-13 for sexual references and thematic elements.