Reality on screen - Divorce in the black.

I don't know about y'all but Tyler Perry produces really relatable movies. Have y”all seen the movie Divorce in the black?? Well, it hits really close to home.

Watching this movie, I remembered the ex who told me that no one would ever love me like he did. In that his anyhow love, every gaddamn day felt like torture. How about the ex that left when I needed him the most?? Boy! I say this movie hits really close to home.*

Given my life experiences, the one thing that these abusers have in common is trampling on the esteem and self worth of their victims.

Like the movie, it was obvious that Ava was too good for her husband Dallas and he knew. Thus, in order to keep his ego inflated, it was him constantly spitting on all of Ava's effort to save their marriage. An action that ultimately kept Ava under.

The thing is, in all aspects, a girl like Ava shouldn't have ended up with a "boy" like Dallas because they were basically worlds apart. Looking at their family background, while Ava was coming from love, Dallas was coming from toxicity.

Again, in the movie, the toxic nature of Dallas and his 4 brothers were terrifying and this could be traced down to their mother. You know, there is something tricky about being abused and that's eventually noticeable in some cases where the abused becomes the abuser.

Like I saw portrayed in the movie by the Bertrand family which is also Dallas’s family. While Dallas murdered his father to save his mother, the mother went on to raise badly behaved adults. And eventually became the source of Ava's problem when Dallas who metamorphosed into his father.

Now, one would think that a woman who has been abused will know how best to raise her sons not to be like the husband that she was saved from. Sadly in this movie and most real life situations, that has never been the case. Probably because the thing with abuse is that, it strips the victim off the will of doing the right thing.

More so, it becomes an impulse and the said individuals just act on the command to be abusive even when they had one time frowned against it.

This movie is no different from every other abusive situation. For me, all the actors brought their A game. Well, except for the Benji character who played Ava's rebound. I just felt that a little more effort on his character wouldn't hurt. He felt too sluggish for his role and also out of touch for one who has been crushing on Ava since they were teenagers.

Again, this is just me trying not to give any spoilers so that the movie will be of interest lol.

It's a good watch and I'd rate it a 9/10.

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Epilogue

It should also be worthy to note that abuse is not gender specific and men suffer it too.

I watched a real life documentary of abused victims where a young guy talked about all the time he was abused and manipulated by his girlfriend. It was a really sad collection.

Moving on, for every abused victims, there is always that finish line. The point where they turn around and take charge of the situation with the help of the following:

A supportive family to always remind them that there is love at home

A best friend whose responsibility of frieneship is to watch the back of the abused and constantly remind them that they deserve better

The will to seek help and want to change

Being strong enough to face our fear

It's not really over unless we say so. So which would it be for Ava? Did it all end in divorce?

Screenshots were taken from the movie